The Light Before The Rainbow
by LucyMabely
Summary: When Sabertooth hasn't had any new members in months and Sting feels bored, Yukino gives him some advice. Sting decides to take it, and ends up allowing someone new to join the guild after helping them out. Sting is glad that Yukino's advice and hopefulness worked out, but how will he show her his appreciation? Friendship: Sting/Yukino. Prequel to "The Feeling of Rejection".
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

 **Some Sweet Advice**

* * *

Sting sat down in his black chair that was in the guild master's office while he looked at the papers that were on his desk, and they were all simply applications sent in by people who had wanted to join the Sabertooth guild. These people had all used Lacrima Communication Crystals for Sting to interview them on why they wanted to join the guild, as he wanted to see who the guild's newest mages could possibly be, and Sting had told them all to contact him again if they wanted to join Sabertooth. All of the applicants had told him they'd keep their options open before officially deciding, and Sting had no problem with that.

The only downside to that decision, however, was that all three mages that he interviewed ended up setting their sights on other guilds. Those interviews took place two months ago in the week where a frosty celebration known as the Fiore Winter Games was happening, and the female mage that he interviewed ended up deciding to be part of the guild called Winter Snowflake. That was certainly unfortunate, since the guild didn't have any new members since last year, and Sting sighed in a somewhat bored manner as he hoped that Sabertooth would regain the feeling of excitement that came from having someone new around.

 _"If we got to have at least one or two new mages, then things would be more interesting around here. It's nice to handle jobs with Rogue and Yukino, but the days have seemed so monotonous."_ Sting thought to himself with a bored facial expression, as he laid his head down on his desk.

"Sting-sama, can I come in?" A familiar female voice asked in a kind tone while giving two soft knocks to the door.

He responded in a calm tone while proceeding to let his blue eyes look up from the papers, "Yeah, you can come in."

The girl who opened the door with her left hand was Yukino Aguria, Sting's teammate who had silvery-blue hair while she was a Celestial Spirit Wizard, and she had a gold plate of chocolate cookies in her hands. Yukino smiled kindly as she walked up to Sting's desk and set the plate down next to the papers that featured how the three mages he had interviewed also sent in essays on why they should join the guild, but their minds changing at the last minute was not exactly sweet as the cookies that Yukino had made in the Sabertooth guild's kitchen.

Sting wondered if eating some of these cookies would lift his bored mood, and he picked up two of the chocolate treats. He quickly bit into the cookies and chewed them, really liking their delicious sweetness, and Sting felt like Yukino made the cookies to perfection. He wasted no time with swallowing the cookies, and the light dragon slayer started to smile while feeling his mood improve. However, it wasn't a major boost that could completely make him forget about the fact that the guild was not having any new members.

Yukino witnessed Sting's faint smile turn into a facial expression of boredom again, causing her to look somewhat down, and she had seen that expression on Sting's face for the past five months. Even though he enjoyed doings jobs with her and Rogue, Yukino had seen Sting feel like it was a bummer that the Sabertooth guild never had any new people join them. She really hoped that he would become thrilled about something again, even if it was for a moment, and seeing Sting happy would make Yukino feel happy. He was the one who allowed her back into Sabertooth, after all.

Yukino's hazel eyes caught glimpses of the papers on Sting's desk, and she guessed that Sting was in the interesting situation of where the aspiring wizards turned down the guild master who would've probably been happy to have them in his guild. Their essays had let him know that they were all nice people who had confidence in their abilities, but the female mage's paragraph about her ultimate goal in her essay talked about how she hoped to someday meet the famous woman known as Clair Emperté and hopefully learn from her. Yukino thought it was good for someone to join Sabertooth, but why use it as a stepping stone to become someone else's apprentice?

"Sting-sama, I think that those people won't join Sabertooth because of how they have other goals. One of your applicants even desires to only join us for the purpose of taking down those possessed mages in Voltage Town, and it's better to have people who will be here to help Sabertooth thrive instead of leaving when their goals are fulfilled." Yukino explained to Sting with a calm look on her face, wanting Sting to pick the right people.

The light dragon slayer replied in a bored manner as he picked up two more cookies to eat, "Wow, they only acted nice because they just wanted to use me to fulfill their goals. It's like when Minerva wanted to use me to make us win the Grand Magic Games last year, but at least she wouldn't have abandoned Sabertooth if we had won."

Yukino kindly told her friend as she smiled gently, letting her right hand touch his left hand, "Don't worry, Sting-sama. Maybe you'll eventually meet someone who wants to genuinely join Sabertooth, and they'll be happy to be here. They may not be the perfect person and they may make some mistakes, but I know you'll be accepting of them."

Sting looked at Yukino's teal tank top and her light teal miniskirt, before his blue eyes glanced down at her teal flat shoes, and he wondered if she would be right about that. Sabertooth had become less popular after Fairy Tail won the Grand Magic Games in X791, and Sting wondered if they would win again in X792. If they won again, then more people would probably just leave Sabertooth to the point where the guild would nearly be empty. Sting was the master of this guild, and he definitely did not want that to happen.

He looked into Yukino's hazel eyes that were filled with kindness and confidence while choosing to have no doubt about her words, and Sting told Yukino that he would think of a way to attract more members to the Sabertooth guild. They may not have been as popular as Fairy Tail, but there would surely be someone or something that could help Sting and Yukino change that. They both enjoyed having fun in their guild, and it would be great to share their fun times and great adventures with some more people. However, Sting wouldn't do any crazy jobs with them unless the situation was pretty serious.

Yukino soon took her hand off of Sting's hand as she nicely told him to just cheer up and be patient, since good things could come to people who merely waited for them to occur, and she walked towards the door while telling Sting to also cheer up. Yukino would not want any new people to see Sabertooth's guild master in a bored mood, as that would probably make them think that Sting was a boring guy, and the Celestial Spirit Wizard knew that Sting could be a very exciting person. In fact, anyone would probably be glad to see Sting smile with a great amount of confidence.

As Yukino opened the door and left her plate of cookies with Sting, the blue-eyed dragon slayer thought about Yukino's advice. He felt like it would be nice to cheer up and smile, but could he really just wait for new people to walk through Sabertooth's yellow entrance doors? That could probably take days or weeks, and Sting could even be out on a job when someone wanted to join. However, Yukino was always nice to assure him that things would get better when he was feeling down. Sting certainly wouldn't mind if Yukino was right about the newest member not being the perfect person, and their quirks could probably be unexpected enough to make things interesting for him.

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 **How was the first chapter of my new story? Did you like it? Feel free to review, and I'm sorry if this first chapter is pretty short. This is my first Sting x Yukino fanfic, but it's only just a friendship between them. Also, as stated in the summary, this is a prequel to "The Feeling of Rejection" while it focuses on Sabertooth's characters. This should be exciting! Happy holidays!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

 **Relieving Boredom In A Fiery Style**

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The following day, Sting had woken up at his desk while he got to see Lector quietly sleeping on top of the filing cabinet. The door to his office had been opened gently enough for Lector to get inside, and he only wanted to check up on Sting. The light dragon slayer went through his usual routine on a daily basis, which involved him handling paperwork before he'd help his teammates with a job that was easy or difficult, but not going home to his house in Shioru Town for dinner or to get any sleep in his nice bed meant that something was definitely on his mind.

He spent the entire night looking at other applications that were sent in last year by wizards who wanted to join Sabertooth, but it would really be pointless to ask them now about if they wanted to join. Based on how twelve months had passed, Sting could assume that they either found other guilds to join or they just gave up on being part of Sabertooth. Either way, it seemed like no new members would join the guild anytime soon. Sting decided to get up from his black chair, only to end up falling out of it, and the sound of him hitting the floor woke up Lector.

"Ouch! Well, I must not have slept well enough in the chair to have a good night's sleep." Sting shouted in a pained manner, before speaking calmly as he rubbed his eyes with his hands.

Lector told him in a somewhat sleepy manner after yawning and stretching out his arms, "Morning, Sting-kun."

Sting looked up at his best friend and replied nicely, "Hey, Lector. Wow, you must've been here all night with me."

The red Exceed let Sting know that he was correct about that, and Lector had wanted Sting to just go home. However, there was something else that was on Lector's mind. He had seen Sting be quite depressed over how no new members were joining the guild, and he did not like seeing the blue-eyed male be in a bummed mood. Even taking missions wouldn't make Sting smile as cheerfully or feel as overconfident as he normally would, and Lector felt like he had to find some way to get Sting back in a good mood. There had to be some way to do that, but what would it be?

Lector slowly flew off of the filing cabinet to land on Sting's desk, and he watched his friend slowly get up from the floor while he began to think. To Sting, things just seemed so very boring in the guild and nothing exciting would probably ever happen for the rest of the year. Lector actually felt like he could agree with him about that, since every day was nearly the same routine for them, but he did wonder if something would ever make their routine be off-schedule. After all, Sting didn't always have to do morning paperwork.

That prompted Lector to smile confidently while he thought about going out to one of Shioru Town's restaurants for breakfast with Sting, and the lovely aroma of pancakes would probably help Sting's mood improve. Lector would even tell Sting to spend at least 7,000 jewels on pancakes, which would really allow him to eat five stacks of them, and Lector hoped that Sting's appetite would help him cheer up. If his plan managed to work, then it would certainly be great for improving the guild's atmosphere as well. After all, boredom in a guild was never really fun.

Sting curiously looked at Lector's confident smile while wondering what his friend was thinking about right now, and he wondered if Lector picked out an S-Class job for them to handle with Rogue and Yukino. Since Sting was the guild master of Sabertooth, that rightfully allowed him to handle jobs of any level. S-Class missions paid quite well, some of them even being worth fifty million jewels, but they did come with the high risks of danger and death. Those jobs normally involved assassinations of extremely dangerous criminals or escorting very important people to certain places.

"Sting-kun, can we go get some pancakes?" Lector asked him as he maintained his confident smile, folding his arms.

Sting responded with a calm look, thinking it would be better than handling paperwork, "Sure, Lector. Let's go get breakfast."

Lector quickly flew out of the office while Sting chose to follow him, and the duo went past Minerva's table while she gently took some sips from her hot cup of tea. Sting and Lector also ran past Yukino, who was looking at the guild's golden request board for a job to do, and the sight of Yukino made Sting wonder if her words from yesterday would come in handy today. Sting could easily just ask a nice girl in the town of Shioru to join the guild if she wasn't already in one, and the females in this town did respect him for being such a cool guy.

Now that they were out of the guild, Sting seemed pretty glad to see many people walking around on the town's streets. The houses for residents were on one side of the town while the shops were on the other side, and the Sabertooth guild was at the back of the town. He would be happy to go ask some girls about joining Sabertooth, but there were some women who did have their guild marks obscured by their clothing. Unlike Rufus, Sting wouldn't exactly remember each person that Lector had stamped with the insignia of Sabertooth.

Some girls would even handle several jobs and not see Sting for a few days, making it more difficult for him to recall everyone who was in Sabertooth, but Sting refused to let blunders stand in his way. His goals for today were getting pancakes and finding someone who wanted to join Sabertooth for genuine reasons that didn't involve them just using the guild as a stepping stone for them to achieve their greater dreams, and the growling of Sting's stomach prompted him and Lector to run towards one of the streets that had a pancake restaurant on it.

That restaurant surprisingly stood near a fashion store that was on the other side of the street, and that store had gained some popularity. Sting and Lector ran to the pancake shop while the current time was 7:30 in the morning, ignoring the weird fact that no one else besides a tall guy with spiky red hair was walking down that same street, and Sting would be glad to enjoy his breakfast. He turned around to glance at the fashion's store's display window, looking past the dresses to see a red-haired girl trying to offer all her cash to the shop owner who would not budge, but Sting simply chose to ignore that and soothe his hunger.

* * *

 **One hour later...**

After eating at least five stacks of pancakes and liking how they were deliciously covered in sugar, Sting paid for the food and walked out of the restaurant with Lector. Getting to eat that great breakfast made him feel somewhat satisfied, and Sting smiled a bit while thinking about who he would ask to join the Sabertooth guild. Sting would probably flex his muscles and show off his nice blue eyes as a way of appealing to that person, but showing off like that would probably be more comical than useful. What could Sting do?

He and Lector began to walk away from the pancake restaurant and walk up the street to reach the train station, as Sting thought that it would be a good idea to ask girls who were just arriving in Shioru about joining the guild, and they ignored the sight of a red-haired girl coming out of the fashion store with a disappointed look on her face. Sting and Lector paid no mind to a red-haired guy who proceeded to aggressively run past them while they were focused on their goal, but both of the males soon looked concerned from hearing someone fall down to the ground.

"Don't snatch my money so harshly, you jerk! Wow, you must really be in a miffed mood." The red-haired girl sternly told the man who wore a red business suit with red pants to match, her hazel eyes not really showing signs of being intimidated.

The man with brown eyes responded with a frown on his face, offering to hand the money back in exchange for something far more precious, "If you want all this cash, then start telling me what you know about the Rainbow Crystals. I've seen you in other towns, and you ask for information on them. Tell me their locations now, or you're dead!"

The girl with red hair simply responded as she smiled, "Be careful with what you say, honestly. I can burn you as easily as I burn down prices when I sell goods in certain towns."

Even though this girl seemed quite brave and ready to fight the guy who decided to drop the bag of jewels, Sting still narrowed his eyes as he decided to check out the situation. Lector would also help him by getting the girl away from the situation if it was necessary, and Sting would not let any criminals cause trouble to anyone in his town. He glanced at the girl who wore a red T-shirt with brown khaki shorts and brown boots to match, recalling how he saw her around Shioru Town sometimes, but Sting had never talked to her. Hopefully, this situation would give him that opportunity.

Without even giving it a second thought, Sting ran up to the situation and got in between the two wizards. He stood in front of Kira while having his back face her, almost like he was being her shield, and Sting charged up a large amount of white light in his right hand. He gave the criminal a threatening look while watching the villain become startled, and Sting focused his magical power into a single point. He struck the antagonist in the chest with his Holy Nova attack, sending him flying far enough to where he was sent crashing into a tree, and the criminal soon fell to the ground while feeling immense pain.

He slowly stood up and looked at Sting, seeing his cocky smirk, and that prompted the criminal to shoot out a spiraling red beam of fire at him. Sting smiled while thinking that he could easily endure the attack, but he soon saw the red-haired girl jump in front of him! She surprisingly inhaled the hot flames like how Natsu would, really liking their level of heat, and she soon let out a hot belch before giggling. This girl didn't seem like a damsel in distress, since she could handle Fire Magic, and she was definitely full of surprises.

She created four flames in her right hand while trying to merge them together to create a red ball of fire, but she was unsuccessful. Sting and Lector watched the girl throw the flames at the criminal while they spun around in a circle, and the flames created powerful explosions upon striking him! He screamed in pain from that attack, and he would even feel pain from how the flames set his red shoes on fire. This guy was actually a dark mage, but it wasn't like he was one of the guild's elite members. He was one of the weaker assassins, and he struggled for a few seconds with removing his burning shoes.

The criminal asked Sting in a frustrated manner as he looked irritated, "You think it's fun to screw with my plans, chump? Who are you?"

"I'm Sting Eucliffe, the guild master of Sabertooth. If you don't want to die, I suggest you leave." Sting told the criminal in a stern tone, preparing another attack.

Upon hearing his name and seeing some bystanders be curious about what was happening right now, the criminal could only run to the train in a hasty manner and not even think of continuing the fight. Battling with the master of Fiore's second-best guild would be a pretty foolish to do, especially if more guild members came along to assist Sting, and the red-haired criminal also felt like he didn't want to lose his life without reporting back to one of the powerful wizards in his dark guild. After all, criminals could be smart if they ran from fights that they couldn't win.

Sting watched one more person get on the train, before the front doors closed and it went speeding off to the next town, and he hoped that thug would never come back to Shioru Town. He may not have defeated him, but scaring him into not returning would allow the girl beside Sting to probably have some peace. He turned to her and saw her cheer happily like it was a victory for them, and Sting was impressed with the power of her spell. It seemed really awesome to him, especially since he hadn't seen that move before, and she really scored herself a victory.

As one of Sabertooth's female mages used some Water Magic to put out the flames that were left behind, Sting felt like this was the perfect time for him to see if this girl would be the one to join the Sabertooth guild. Asking her immediately would seem weird to him, though, and the light dragon slayer would definitely have to congratulate her for being a great help to him in that little fight. There was the idea of giving her some of his cash to give her more money to buy something that she couldn't afford right now, but his new ally didn't seem to want money from him.

She ran up to her bag of jewels that was still sealed nicely by a brown rope, and the girl had thought to herself about how that fashionable store wouldn't accept any of her money without showing something else. She actually heard rumors of where the first crystal was located, and her goal for tomorrow was to get it. This girl felt a great amount of excitement about finding that first crystal, but telling her new friends about this and possibly hearing their goals was something that would probably have to be handled inside of a building.

* * *

 **30 minutes later, in the Sabertooth guild...**

Sting and Lector brought their new friend to the guild while they smiled proudly about the fact that she was here, and they sat down at one of the brown tables in the guildhall. They watched their friend curiously look at the brown self-serving bar and also glance at the two grey statues of saber-tooth tigers that were near the entrance, so it seemed like she was just checking out the decor. Sting hoped that this girl would feel like being part of Sabertooth, and he even put his hands together in a praying manner as he hoped for fate to be on his side.

Lector watched the red-haired girl look over at Minerva, who merely narrowed her emerald green eyes at the sight of Sting letting a possible rookie with magic be in a prestigious guild like Sabertooth, and the girl started to smile while noticing Rogue at another table with his green Exceed named Frosch. Sting could see that his new friend was taking a quick liking to Sabertooth's guildhall, really admiring the large carpet that was red, and he smiled confidently while deciding that this would be the perfect moment to ask her some nice questions.

"What's your name, and will you please join Sabertooth with good intentions?" Sting asked the girl in a calm manner while hoping that last question sounded free of desperation.

The girl with red hair responded as she turned to face Sting, smiling quite nicely, "My name is Kira Blazia. I'd love to join the Sabertooth guild, since it would help with my sales as a merchant and help me have fun adventures. Also, you're Sting Eucliffe."

"That is so awesome! You know my great name, and you want to join my guild! You're immediately recognized as an official member of Sabertooth!" Sting exclaimed in a psyched up manner, as he got up from his chair.

He began to dance around and cheer in a comical manner while Lector started to dance on the table because of how Sting was in a much better mood now, prompting Kira to simply giggle in a cheerful manner at how she must've given them the answers that they really wanted to hear, and she'd be delighted to join Sabertooth. Kira felt like her level of skill could definitely help her fit in with the other guild members, since Sabertooth was one of the best guilds in Fiore, and she did wonder about what her first job would be.

Sting did seem like he would love for Kira to start working today, possibly even accompanying her on an S-Class mission, and the girl who had hazel eyes would definitely enjoy showing off her skills to him on jobs. Raking in the cash would totally be nice, but displaying more of her Fire Magic would be a great bonus. She got up from her chair to walk over to the golden request board, wanting to see what types of jobs would be on the board today, but let's just say that Kira was being somewhat bold to do that without even getting her guild mark yet.

Minerva calmly watched her while thinking that Sting must be crazy to let the red-haired merchant look at the flyers on the request board without even asking to see some of her strongest skills to determine the jobs that would be great for her, and she actually hoped that the light dragon slayer's sudden decision to have Kira as a Sabertooth mage would not come back to haunt the guild. After all, no one needed to hear about any of the other guild members losing their lives because of Sting letting them take a job they weren't prepared for.

Kira continued to look at the request board while checking out every flyer, taking note of the possible difficulty of each job while also seeing if any of the rewards were good, but those jobs were just leftover tasks from yesterday. The best jobs were taken yesterday, mainly by Sting's team, and that didn't really leave Kira with any good jobs that could help her obtain some extra money. The best job on the request board only offered a reward of 30,000 jewels, so it seemed like Kira would need to just wait for the jobs that would be on the board tomorrow.

Sting stated with a shocked facial expression, almost forgetting something, "Kira, you should show us your magic! That way, I can help you pick out suitable jobs!"

Kira responded in a happy manner as she walked back to the table, "All right, Sting. Prepare to see one of my favorite spells!"

In a few seconds, Kira made a red ball of fire appear in her right hand. She turned to look at a table that was vacant with no one really sitting around it, and Kira simply threw her fireball at it. She threw it quickly while not realizing that the fireball would not hit the top of the table when it made contact with the brown wood, and Kira's projectile ended up hitting one of the table's wooden legs. It created a fiery explosion that was of a miniature size, and the fireball also left a black circular scorch mark on the red carpet while steam came out of it.

As Minerva was appalled to see what Kira just did to the table and carpet, Sting simply turned to face Yukino with a grin of happiness. She took notice of him grinning at her and kindly smiled back, glad that Sting managed to find a mage who seemed like the person who would be great for Sabertooth to have, and Yukino could see that Kira was quite an interesting person. In fact, seeing her chuckle in an embarrassed manner and say that was one of her playful moves made Yukino feel like Sabertooth would no longer have an atmosphere of boredom or monotony.

 **How was Chapter 2? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. This chapter was somewhat short, but I think it came out okay. Happy holidays! Fanfiction is so fun and exciting to write! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

 **Snowy Surprises On The First Job**

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Kira woke up in the bedroom of her house that was in Shioru Town, slowly getting out from underneath the red comforter, and she glanced at the red apple-shaped clock that was on the cherry red dresser. The current time was 7:00 in the morning, and the red-haired merchant would gladly start off her day with some breakfast. She looked at the cherry red bookcase that was in her room, liking how her books were neatly organized, and it seemed like there was enough space for one last book to fit on the highest shelf. That caused Kira to slightly smile, and she yawned softly.

Kira proceeded to get out of her red bed and walk across the ruby red carpet that for the purpose of going into the bathroom that was nearby, and she liked the decor of her house. The scarlet red walls nicely matched her carpet, and she wore a plain red pajama shirt with plain red pajama pants to match. She proceeded to look into the mirror that was above the white sink, prompting her to simply giggle at how some dinner from last night was still around her lips, and Kira turned the left faucet for hot water to appear. She placed her hands into the water and used it to wash away the food around her lips, and Kira did want to look nice for today.

As her hazel eyes took notice of her red toothbrush being on the left side of the sink while the toothpaste was on the other side, Kira thought about how Sting had asked her to join Sabertooth. She was quite glad to accept his offer, since taking great jobs from a guild would help her have much more cash, and the red-haired girl would love to hang out with the other mages from Sabertooth. They would probably not all like her immediately, but Kira could surely earn their respect someday. Being the newbie meant that she had to work hard to earn praise, and she'd certainly do that.

Her Fire Magic was at a fairly decent level, and Kira had learned several spells of it from some of the books that she had purchased in other towns. Of course, quantity did not mean that the quality of her spells would be amazing. Some of them weren't exceptionally strong, but a unique thing about Kira's Fire Magic was that she liked some of the fiery healing spells. There weren't many mages who used fire for that purpose, so Kira was glad to feel special. In fact, a sudden soft knock at her front door made her feel special enough to finally have a visitor.

"Whoever it is, I'll be right there!" Kira loudly stated as she turned off the water, before running out of the bathroom.

Kira ran through her bedroom's doorway to reach the living room area that was close to the kitchen, and she heard the person knock once more. Kira proceeded to unlock her door and open it to see Yukino standing in front of her, a nice smile on her face, and the girl with light blue hair was holding a brown flyer in her hands. Kira blinked her eyes from seeing Yukino here, curious about why she needed to see her, and the two girls hadn't even talked yet. Yukino may not have been overly eager about making friends, but she did carry out necessary orders.

The flyer in her hands was one that Sting picked out from the golden request board in the Sabertooth guild, and the light dragon slayer asked Yukino to give it to Kira. This was a job that he thought she could handle greatly, and its reward was certainly a good one. The awesome reward would not be tied to any jobs such as gardening or shopping for lazy citizens of Shioru Town, and Yukino also thought that the job was cool. She glanced at it for a moment to see that this job involved taking down some bandits, and that seemed easy enough.

Kira gently took the flyer from Yukino's hands while she decided to examine it, her facial expression changing between happy and focused, but she surprised the Celestial Spirit Wizard by asking for her name. Instead of even asking about if the job had any harsh gangs around or criminals who could use the bushes to camouflage themselves, Kira simply wanted to know the name of the calm girl who seemed like she'd be a good friend. Kira lowered the flyer down to her stomach, and she watched Yukino get ready to say her name.

The fact that Yukino had to introduce herself wasn't exactly the most exciting thing in the world, but let's just say that her nice name would actually go well with this mission. Frosch would think so, too, and Sting would probably be the only one in the group to not really care about it. Yukino smiled with confidence as she kindly told her name to Kira Blazia, causing the fire-wielding wizard to also introduce herself, but hearing that the Celestial Spirit Wizard was named Yukino certainly gave Kira a reason to start giggling in an amused manner.

"What is so funny, Kira-sama?" Yukino asked her with curiosity in her hazel eyes as she folded her arms.

Kira replied nicely to her, as she still giggled, "Well, Yukino, your name definitely goes well with the location of this mission. I wonder if you'll get a statue in northern Fiore for having that name."

Yukino responded in a calm manner, countering Kira's snarky remark, "Kira-sama, I wonder if you'll get some kind of award for handling this mission while being in your pajamas."

That prompted Kira to hand the flyer back to Yukino, and she wasted no time with closing her front door. As Kira decided to change into some clothes that would be better to wear in the cold part of Fiore, Yukino began to calmly wonder how Kira would do on this mission. She seemed to be quite excited for her first official job as a mage, but pointing about how Yukino's name went well with the snowy area certainly made her be somewhat strange. No one had told Yukino any puns like that before, but she could deal with it.

She could hear Kira loudly talk about how her hot flames would make Sabertooth be happy, and Yukino certainly wanted to see how this first job would go for the new rookie. Even though Sting did not say that Yukino had to come along, she felt like it would be nice to simply join the group. She'd probably also have to inform Kira about why Sting and Rogue would not be very excited about taking the train up to the northern town, and this team would definitely be one that really stood out from other teams that were in Fiore.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, at the Sabertooth guild...**

Sting had been delighted enough to publicly announce that Kira would be taking her first job today, causing some of the guild members to clap their hands in a happy manner, and the light dragon slayer even told the other mages that he would assist her with the job. Rogue would accompany them on the job as well, and he hoped that it would go smoothly. Sting felt like the task would be easy for him to handle, but he did want to show off his skills for Kira. After all, how could a good guild master not show his newest member that he was quite strong?

Sting also hoped that he could keep Kira safe on this mission, since the guild master had the huge responsibility of making sure that his comrades were not fatally harmed, and he calmly looked down at his right hand while thinking that he could easily defeat the bandits in twenty or thirty seconds. Sting may not have been perceived to be as strong as any of the dragon slayers in the Fairy Tail guild, but he had trained quite hard to where something like surrendering to a group of five injured mages would never happen again.

He hadn't even activated Dragon Force in the past five months, wanting to become stronger without using it, and increasing his overall level of strength would just make the Dragon Force be much stronger than it was in the previous year. Sting told himself that he would only use it when the situation was very severe to the point where he was the last wizard standing against a tough group of enemies, and he certainly would not get cocky. After all, arrogance was something that could really hurt a team on a mission. In fact, it could sometimes result in death.

As Sting sat down at a table with Rogue while they waited for Yukino to arrive back at the guildhall, Minerva stood near the window with her arms folded. She seemed pretty critical of Sting's choice to start Kira off with a mission that was far from the Sabertooth guild while she had seen which flyer Sting gave to Yukino, and the area that Sting was headed to with Kira and Rogue had been close to a guild known as Winter Snowflake. Sting could possibly enter that town to buy some delicious treats that would be cold, but Minerva frowned as she wanted to be sure of his decision.

"Sting, do you really think it's okay to send the rookie up there? You do know that Winter Snowflake is in the northern region, right?" Minerva asked him in a somewhat stern tone, hoping that Sting wouldn't embarrass Sabertooth in any way.

The light dragon slayer responded with confidence in his eyes, having no need to worry, "Relax, Minerva. We'll handle the job quickly. If it gets bad enough to where Winter Snowflake finishes it, I won't be upset about getting extra help."

Minerva simply replied after scoffing, disliking Sting's overconfidence, "Just don't embarrass Sabertooth or let Kira do anything stupid."

Sting felt like Minerva was being too harsh on the red-haired rookie, as he did overhear her discuss the matter of Kira yesterday with Orga Nanagear and Rufus Lohr, but he did understand that Minerva was concerned about her fellow mages. She also greatly cared about Sabertooth's reputation, not wanting it to be tarnished by any failures, and the black-haired woman just wanted Sabertooth to be the best guild in Fiore. That would probably have to be officially decided by the outcome of the next Grand Magic Games, sadly.

Minerva's green eyes looked over at Sabertooth's entrance doors to see that they were still closed with no sign of Kira showing up yet, and she began to frown while thinking that this was the typical behavior of a rookie that either wimped out from hearing the job's description or decided to just be lazy. If Kira was feeling like she'd be a complete klutz who would be dead weight to the team, then Minerva would gladly take care of the task for her. After all, she wanted to make Sabertooth look like the most elite guild in Fiore.

Sting's fingers gently tapped on the table while he waited for Kira to show up, and he actually thought that the fire-wielding mage was the type of girl who preferred to oversleep. After Kira left a restaurant last night, Sting and Lector actually decided to follow her to where she lived. They were sneaky about it, though, and Sting was glad that no one else paid any attention to him while he quietly walked behind Kira. That was how he knew where she lived, and he had merely told Yukino to find the house with that address.

As he looked at a green watch that one of the female mages was wearing, Sting wondered if Kira would show up at 8:00 in the morning. If that was to be the case, then he and Rogue could simply wait. It would probably give them enough time to eat more breakfast or do some shopping in Shioru Town, but those plans were thrown out the window when Kira pushed open Sabertooth's entrance doors. She smiled happily while running up to Sting and Rogue as she felt excited, and the red-haired merchant wore a red sweater with brown winter pants and brown boots to match.

"You're late, rookie! You should be here at 7:00 in the morning, instead of showing up at 7:03!" Minerva sternly told her while looking at the green watch on the wrist of a nearby female mage.

Kira responded nicely, turning to face Minerva, "Well, it's better to show up late than not showing up at all."

Sting smiled in a confident manner as he asked Kira if she was ready to handle her first job as a Sabertooth mage, prompting her to face him and be psyched up about it, but he didn't expect Kira to immediately run out of the guild. She was definitely excited to be handling this job, and Sting was pretty glad to see a rookie who didn't even feel nervous about the request. He would let her have all the cash from the reward, since this was a great job for her to do, and Kira would probably show Sting some hot surprises today.

Rogue decided to run after her, Sting choosing to follow him, and Yukino simply bowed her head politely while thanking Minerva for not getting mad at her about Kira's slight tardiness. The group was headed to an adventure that seemed like it could be a breeze for them to handle, but the winds up north could create some fierce blizzards that would match the ferocity of the strongest mages in the guild known as Winter Snowflake. If blizzards or avalanches wouldn't be hard enough for Sting's team to deal with, then they wouldn't exactly enjoy the luxury of a four-hour train ride.

* * *

 **Two hours later, on the train ride...**

Getting on to the train had been no problem for Kira or Yukino, but the red-haired girl was quite curious about what was wrong with Sting and Rogue while she sat across from them. Their faces had comically become a pale shade of green while they looked really sick, and this was one of the weaknesses that all dragon slayers had to deal with. Sting looked sick enough to where he would open the window for the purpose of retching, and he honestly wished that there was a healer on this train. That would make him feel better, even if the method of healing would be painful.

Yukino kindly asked Rogue about switching seats with him in the next hour for the purpose of letting Sting rest his head on her lap, since that tended to give the blue-eyed male a slight amount of comfort, and she always hated to see Sting suffering from motion sickness. If he was still feeling very sick when they encountered the bandits, then he would just be very weak and ineffective. That would definitely hurt the team, but how could Yukino fix that dilemma? Without Sting and Rogue, Yukino and Kira wouldn't be able to sniff out any hidden enemies or booby traps possibly buried in the snow.

Rogue hadn't been able to respond to Yukino's question about switching seats, looking like he could throw up at any time, and that surprisingly prompted Kira to charge up a red flame in her right hand. She made it grow to the size of her hand while it was filled with heat, and Yukino looked quite shocked to see Kira throw the flame at Rogue. It soon engulfed him while other passengers were incredibly curious about what was going on, and the flame soon faded away while its heat went into Rogue's body. Kira smiled confidently at him as he she thought that her healing flames worked on many ailments, but would she be right?

As Kira decided to throw a flame of relief at Sting, Rogue found himself able to sit down on the train ride while he didn't feel sick at all. He remained emotionless as he simply thanked Kira for healing him, feeling the heat also make his body less numb from the train's cold temperature, and he watched the flames start to engulf Sting for ten seconds. The flames were actually sending their heat into Sting to burn away the toxins of his sickness, and Kira's heat could burn through things at quite a fast pace. She was certainly a good mage to have in the guild, and Sting would be vocal about that.

"Kira, I am so glad that I picked you instead of picking one of those people who initially wanted to join and decided against it." Sting told her with a satisfied facial expression while the flames faded away.

The quirky girl responded in a calm manner, glad to be of assistance, "Thanks, Sting. It's great to make a good first impression on my new team."

Yukino felt like telling Kira that they weren't an official team, due to Sting not filling out the paperwork for it, but she wouldn't want to ruin the moment. The Celestial Spirit Wizard was just as glad as Rogue to know that there was a healer in this group while she could also fight with Fire Magic, and this group could probably have a good amount of harmony to where they could work together with efficiency.. That would definitely be great, especially since teamwork was something crucial to all teams of wizards in Fiore.

The hazel-eyed girl wondered if Minerva would ever work with her on a job, but they hadn't even talked much after Yukino was accepted back into Sabertooth. The stern woman did think that Yukino was quite pitiful in her fight against Kagura during last year's Grand Magic Games, finding her overconfidence to be utterly disgraceful, and Yukino was still surprised that Minerva didn't even give her any lectures about failing. That was probably because of how she suffered her own humiliating defeat at the hands of Erza Scarlet, so Minerva wasn't in any position to berate Yukino.

Minerva just seemed like she never wanted to work with anyone other than Rufus or Orga, possibly because she had better chemistry with them, and that was probably better for Yukino. It would give her the opportunity to keep working with Sting and Rogue while Kira would be her ally as well, and getting to know her new teammate could certainly prove to be beneficial. With that being said, however, Yukino did gasp softly at seeing Rogue stand up to answer her question from earlier. She was glad to simply swap seats with him, and she even saw Kira softly smile from seeing Rogue sit next to her.

Sting decided to let everyone know that they would be headed to the town of Eisetsu, a town known for its winter activities while the mages there were rumored to train under the strict guidance of Winter Snowflake's toughest wizard, and they'd even work on improving their skills when she was out on missions with her butler. Their guild was said to do well in the Fiore Winter Games every year, and even Fairy Tail could not beat them. If Sabertooth was going to compete with them on who could defeat the bandits near the town, it would be an interesting race.

"I think that Eisetsu Town is one of the places recommended for anyone who wants to have all seven treasures." Kira explained to her friends in a calm manner, recalling Eisetsu Town's rumors involving water and ice.

Sting asked in a puzzled manner, raising an eyebrow, "This has something to do with those Rainbow Crystals that the criminal confronted you about, right?"

Kira told Sting that he was correct, and she informed Rogue and Yukino that the Rainbow Crystals were items that lived up to their name. According to rumors that were being spread throughout the entire country of Fiore, there were seven crystals to be found while they were all in different areas of Fiore. Whoever found all seven crystals would probably attain their goals of fame and fortune, but there were some mages who felt like just using the crystals for their high levels of power. They could supposedly help mages learn new spells or amplify their magic, but no one ever demonstrated their abilities to large crowds for anyone to really be sure.

If Kira did manage to find a Rainbow Crystal in Eisetsu Town or in the snowy forest that was nearby, she unfortunately would just collect it without even using its power. In an area with frigid blue water and light blue ice, the Rainbow Crystal in this part of Fiore would probably be blue. That color was normally associated with Water Magic, a type of magic that simply dealt with spells of water, and Kira's flames would definitely clash with it. Would the mission be as interesting as the thought of even seeing that crystal, though?

* * *

 **Two hours later, in the snowy forest...**

The train ride took Sting and his friends to the northern town of Eisetsu, a winter town that thrived from all of the cash that its wizards brought in from jobs, and they were now walking through the snow-covered forest. Several pine trees had their green leaves covered by the white snow while they were quite tall, and the cold air blew through the forest to give a chill to the nice scenery. Yukino walked beside Sting while the warmth from a ball of light on his right hand gave her some warmth, and Rogue walked beside Kira while the heat in her body made the cold air hardly be a nuisance.

The snowy forest could lead up to Lake Eichi, a beautiful lake of water in a regular shade of blue, and that lake was known by the people of Eisetsu Town to have water at extremely frigid temperatures. It wouldn't exactly be the best place for anyone to drop their valuable items, unless they worked with Water Magic long enough to where the frosty temperature wouldn't be an issue. Going all the way down from the lake could lead someone to the icy tundra where the ground was incredibly slippery while the only attraction was the icy cave, but there were also snowy mountains that could send down vicious avalanches if people were too loud.

Speaking of ice, Yukino widened her eyes in amazement from seeing a frozen puddle of light blue ice on the ground. It looked quite unusual in the forest, possibly being made recently, and she decided to walk up to it. Kira went up to the frozen puddle as well, and the girls got to see some large icicles start to rise up from the puddle. The three icicles were part of a trap spell for anyone who got too close, and they formed a triangle. Sting blinked his eyes in shock at the sight of that, sensing that spell's power to be quite high, but he could see that someone was here earlier.

If the team from Sabertooth arrived too late to handle this mission, then it certainly would be embarrassing. Picking out a job for Kira to do would've been meaningless, and Sting started to look frustrated. He punched a nearby tree with his left fist, only to see it explode in a dark green blast of energy, and Sting was sent flying backwards! The high winds sent Rogue flying back several feet as well, and everyone was surprised to see that blast. That was a trap involving Plant Magic, which only worked when any type of plant was around, but was it a malicious one?

"A-are you going to hurt me?" A young girl's voice asked in a fearful tone while the smoke faded away, her footsteps lightly being heard as she took some steps backwards.

Kira replied in a calm manner while hoping this wasn't part of a ruse by the bandits, speaking quite loudly, "If you don't intend to hurt us, then we won't hurt you."

The dark green clouds of smoke faded away to reveal that the explosion was caused by a girl who looked to be at least ten years old, and she simply wore a mint green dress with some dark green shoes to match. Some cuts were on her arms and face while her green eyes showed fear from seeing the Sabertooth mages, and her legs were bruised up from injuries while her hands looked very numb from the cold air. Her mint green hair was in a bob style while the growling of her stomach could be heard, and this girl had tried to survive for three days.

Her mother was a gardener who lived in the town of Eisetsu, and this young girl had learned a spell that could create explosive trees. She made them blend in with the regular trees, and this was something she did for the past three days. The shy girl worked up the courage to inform the mages from Sabertooth that she was dared by some kids to go into the snowy forest and dig up treasure that was in a certain part of the forest, but she found herself having to hide from a group of seven bandits that roamed around the area.

The tree-planting spell allowed her to use another spell that could allow her body to become dark green goop, and she attached herself to the tree while attempting to be perfectly silent. The explosions from her newly-made trees killed three of the bandits who foolishly tapped them while the other four were handled by a certain tough pair of mages that came back to patrol the forest three hours ago, and the young girl had been lost in the forest for three days. She had even been lucky enough to find her way out of the icy tundra when she thought that area had a path back to Eisetsu Town, and this was certainly no place for people to mess around.

Yukino stretched out her left hand in a kind manner to show the young girl that they were going to help her get back home, and she even walked towards her to get a good view of all the bruises that needed to be healed. She smiled nicely while slowly turning around and putting her hands behind her back, offering to carry the young girl back home, and the green-eyed girl gladly allowed herself to be carried by Yukino. As the Celestial Spirit Wizard decided to walk back to the town with the young girl, Kira decided to ask the young girl a nice question.

"Have you always lived in Eisetsu Town?" Kira nicely asked the female mage, as she checked out the large icicles that were on the puddle.

The green-haired girl replied kindly, letting out some soft coughs, "No. My mommy and I moved here from Kazehana Town last month because of how the winds were weird there."

Sting commented in a calm manner while he and Rogue got up, his blue eyes filled with disappointment, "Well, this mission was a failure for us. The mages from Winter Snowflake beat us to the punch. I swear, train rides should be shorter."

As the group began walking back to the town, Kira's eyes spotted a hole that was between two trees. She quickly ran over to the hole and checked it out, seeing a large green treasure chest in it, and Kira's expertise with being a merchant in many circumstances let her see that this hole was made by a blast. Some clouds of smoke lightly came from the hole, letting the red-haired girl see that it was recently made, and she wasted no time with pulling the chest out of the hole. It had been buried there years ago by someone who wanted to hide their treasure from thieves, but they had been spotted by kids from Eisetsu Town to have rumors start going around.

Since the treasure was up for grabs, Kira created a fireball to burn away the black metal lock on the green chest. She pushed aside the chains and opened up the chest to see that a brown bag was in it, and there seemed to be at least 500,000 jewels in it. This job may have been seen as a failure by Sting, but Kira would assure him that they totally found success. She ran after her friends with a very giddy look on her face, and Yukino turned around to see that Kira was quite the treasure hunter. She thought about telling Sting what just happened, but she would probably get him happy enough to cause an avalanche with his cheer of excitement. Even though no bandits were defeated, the team technically completed their job of finding a girl to escort back to Eisetsu.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 3? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

 **Warm Kindness In The Winter Cold**

* * *

Sting stood near the fashion store in the cold town of Eisetsu while he waited for Kira and Rogue to finish eating lunch at the town's best bar, and the light dragon slayer took notice of how some kids were building snowmen. They rolled the balls of snow across the ground several times in their attempts to make the largest snowmen without seeing them fall apart at the very last moments, and Sting simply smiled at their determination to be great. That reminded him of his own determination to surpass Natsu, which he would hopefully end up doing someday.

Snow slowly fell down from the grey sky while Sting stood next to the large bag of jewels that Kira asked him to guard for her, and he was pretty glad that the team wouldn't go back home with a loss. The thought of telling Minerva about how the mission ended in failure had made Sting feel worried, as Minerva was quite a stern woman who could give some of the harshest scoldings in the world for failure that occurred after a person seemed so cocky that they could succeed, but Kira's nice discovery thankfully saved everyone from a serious lecture.

He would totally need to thank her, but one thought had stayed in Sting's mind since yesterday. He really had to thank Yukino, who was currently helping a woman get her tongue unstuck from one of the large icicles in front of the palace where Eisetsu Town's mayor lived with his daughter and her butler, and Sting felt like the Celestial Spirit Wizard was truly the one responsible for this great event. Yukino's advice to Sting really worked, and he had to find a nice way to thank his friend. How could he do that, though?

As Sting smiled at the idea of simply buying a blue bracelet from the fashion store that was nearby, the mother of the girl who had been lost decided to approach him. The little girl stood beside her mother, who was a woman with mint green hair that fell to her hips while she wore a green ski jacket with brown ski pants and brown snow boots to match, and her sudden act of hugging Sting certainly got his attention. He hugged back to be polite, before gently pushing the woman away, and he looked into her green eyes that were greatly filled with relief.

"Thank you so much for bringing my daughter back to town, Sabertooth wizard. I'm glad that you beat down those bandits and kept my daughter safe, but it's sad that I can't reward you." The girl's mother kindly told Sting as she smiled, looking at the white guild mark on his left shoulder.

Sting replied as he began to chuckle, scratching the back of his head with his left hand, "Oh, it's fine! The mages from the guild of Sabertooth are glad to just carry out the good deed of helping a child get home safely."

The little girl told Sting in a calm manner while she smiled, "Thank you, Mister. You seem just as cool as this town's heroes."

Sting openly wondered if the mages in Eisetsu Town were really as great as the civilians seemed to think they were, prompting the green-eyed woman to ask him if he had heard of Clair Emperté, and she informed him that Clair was one of the town's top mages. Several of the younger and weaker girls looked up to Clair like she was their older sister, aspiring to be like her, and they even practiced their ice skating skills on a daily basis to emulate her greatness. Clair seemed like a skilled woman, but Sting had no reason to care about that right now.

He nicely asked the woman if it would be possible for him to find nice gifts in this town, which caused her to kindly giggle, and she smiled while informing him that the town of Eisetsu could be quite festive in the winter months. The town was never openly festive to the point of decorating every building with fancy lights, but some stores did give discounts on gifts and winter treats while they would have lovely winter music playing. Sting would just have to look for the shops that had discounts, and he'd hopefully find something nice for Yukino.

The mother and her daughter both waved goodbye to Sting while deciding to go back to their house for a delicious lunch, and Sting wondered what Yukino would like to get from him. He felt like there was a chance that she may not like the gift, even though Yukino was kind and very understanding, and Sting's blue eyes were filled with the intent to satisfy her. He didn't want to get Yukino a gift that she would dislike, nor did he want to give her something that seemed too cheap. The perfect gift for his friend would have to be something nice, but what could it be?

Sting decided to walk into the fashion store with Kira's large brown bag of money, only wanting to check out the merchandise, and he was intrigued by the sight of a blue dress that had light blue icicles made from the same fabric on the bottom of it. Whoever wore this dress would certainly be trying to pull off a frosty look, and the dress was on the same rack as other dresses that had elemental themes to them. Sting smiled from seeing that the dress only had a price of fifty-thousand jewels, but the woman who was the shop owner with blonde hair and violet eyes merely frowned at him.

"Excuse me, sir. Before you can make any purchases, please show me the number of Rainbow Crystals in your possession." The woman calmly told Sting while walking out from behind the counter, letting him see that she wore a black ski jumpsuit with black ski pants and black snow boots to match.

Sting responded in a somewhat shocked manner, unaware of that rule, "Are you serious, lady? Sadly, I don't have any Rainbow Crystals."

The shop owner explained to him while sounding annoyed, folding her arms, "Well, then, you will have to leave and come back later. The Rainbow Crystals determining your level of purchases is a rule implemented by Samantha Kalos, the newest name in the fashion world."

That prompted Sting to ask the shop owner about why she'd obey the rules of a fashion newbie, but she countered his question by stating that Samantha was a new designer who was having great amounts of success in the fashion industry. In fact, every single piece of merchandise in the store was one of Samantha's interesting designs. There was even a golden top hat with small golden keys made from the same fabric on it, and they seemed to resemble Zodiac Gate Keys. The seven keys didn't look exactly like the real ones, but Samantha had heard several rumors about what the keys looked like for her to nicely reference them.

Sting's eyes looked at the light blue walls of the store, before looking down at the light blue carpeting, and he merely scoffed at the woman in front of him while deciding to just leave. He honestly couldn't imagine a store that wouldn't just take money, and the male with blond hair felt like Samantha's rule was absolutely absurd. He walked out of the store with Kira's bag of money while thinking that such a cold rule really fit the snowy town, and Sting wondered if he could get Yukino a Rainbow Crystal someday. It wouldn't be an extravagant present, but at least she'd get to shop in Samantha's stores.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, at the Sabertooth guild...**

Minerva looked out one of the guild's windows while holding a blue Lacrima Communications Crystal in her hands, and she wondered why no one from Sting's group had informed her about the mission possibly being complete. She hoped that they weren't killing time with trying to think of a good excuse for their failure, and Minerva would certainly berate Kira if she caused the team's loss. Sabertooth did not need anyone to slow them down on missions, especially if they were just a rookie with no experience in a guild, and Minerva started feeling like she should've gone out on that job as well.

Her thoughts shifted to Yukino, who was no longer the newest mage in Sabertooth, and the black-haired woman wondered if Yukino would be okay. Using her Celestial Spirits would be good, but Yukino would probably be defenseless without them. Minerva's fight against Lucy Heartfilia in the Naval Battle last year really let her see how Celestial Spirit Magic was one of the worst types of magic, as none of the spirits could even force an opponent out of the large sphere of water, and she hoped that Yukino would become strong.

Sting and Rogue would probably do their best to keep her safe, but Minerva also felt like they would have to help Kira not be a complete klutz in the heat of battle. If the team ended up getting frozen to the point where they looked like statues of ice, Minerva would definitely have to be the one with the task of dragging them back home. She imagined herself having to melt all the ice before their hearts would freeze, and she loudly sighed while thinking that the team was doomed to fail. Her green eyes were filled with some negativity, too.

In Minerva's eyes, a team was only as strong as its weakest member. If Kira was more of a hindrance than a helper, then the team's battles would certainly be taking much longer than necessary. The fact that the red-haired girl got to go out on a mission after clumsily making one of her fireballs break one leg of a table in the guildhall had really made Minerva wonder if Sabertooth would really need to scrape the bottom of the barrel to possibly find anyone else who was talented, but the ringing of Lacrima Communications Crystal in her hands shifted her focus. Minerva tapped the index finger of her left hand, and she got a nice surprise.

"Minerva-sama, come in. I have news for you." Yukino kindly told her while smiling, as her face appeared in the crystal ball.

Minerva asked her in a somewhat frustrated manner, wondering how the job went wrong, "What's the news, Yukino? How did Kira mess up the job?"

Yukino replied to her in a happy tone, her hazel eyes filled with delight, "Actually, Kira-sama found a large amount of treasure that was in a hole that had been made recently. We're all just relaxing in Eisetsu Town right now, since we had to escort a little girl home to her mother, but we'll be back soon."

The news of Kira finding treasure while the team merely escorted a girl back to the town had nearly caused Minerva to drop the Lacrima Communications Crystal, and she asked Yukino if they handled their little escort mission after defeating the bandits. Yukino did not even hesitate with telling Minerva that the team didn't defeat any of the bandits that were in the area, and that made Minerva angrily ask if the team was just slacking off. Yukino calmly told her that they weren't slacking off at all, and the matter wasn't that simple.

Minerva seemed quite surprised to learn that the bandits were defeated before Sting's group even got into the snowy forest, and Yukino had sensed that a large amount of magical power was used earlier. It faded away quickly, almost like the battle against the bandits ended swiftly, and whoever used those powerful spells had been quite strong. They didn't bother leaving a single bandit alive for anyone else to kill, and it seemed like all the bandits were obliterated. Sting's group lost out on the chance to beat up bandits, but they still found treasure.

Yukino also told Minerva that the group was lucky to escort that little girl home when they did, since she could overhear some female mages from Winter Snowflake talking about how it seemed like a blizzard would come in the next hour, and that would definitely make Sabertooth be seen as a heroic guild. After all, they would've even gone into the frozen tundra during a vicious snowstorm if they heard that a child was possibly out there. Minerva nodded in agreement with that, understanding why Yukino wasn't upset about the bandits not being defeated at the hands of Sabertooth.

Minerva's green eyes soon caught sight of someone offering Yukino an ice cream cone that had three large scoops stacked on top of each other, and Yukino gently grabbed the delicious treat with her right hand. The treat was given to her by a black-haired woman who wore a pink skiing hat with a pink coat and black snow boots to match, and that lady started licking her own ice cream cone that she purchased from the ice cream shop in Eisetsu Town. She gave Yukino three scoops of the town's special blue mint ice cream while eating three scoops of sherbet ice cream, and Minerva gave the sherbet ice cream a glare of disapproval.

"Why did she just give you ice cream, Yukino?" Minerva asked in a curious manner, wondering if the blue mint ice cream was any good.

Yukino replied nicely, after licking the top scoop five times, "Minerva-sama, this is my little reward for helping this woman get he tongue unstuck from an icicle. Apparently, the butler of the princess can make the ice here be as hard as dense metal."

That made Minerva wonder how hard someone had to train for their ice to be that dense, and she even got to see the woman Yukino helped calmly explain that the main specialist with Ice Magic in this town was a guy named Hayato Mijumaru. Apparently, he was also a really great fisherman who won the gold medal every year in the ice fishing event of the Fiore Winter Games. Also, he was said to share his partner's amazing feat of succeeding on every single job while even strong S-Class criminals fell to his might.

Yukino ended the conversation by turning off her Lacrima Communications Crystal, but Minerva did get to hear her tell the woman she helped to simply place her fingers between her tongue and the ice. That was actually how Yukino helped her get free from the icicle, and Minerva was actually glad that she wasn't the one to handle that job. After all, seeing Sting have a tendency to lick ice cream several times before eating it made that be one tongue that she wouldn't touch. The team didn't leave her completely satisfied, but at least Kira didn't screw up anything.

* * *

 **45 minutes later, in Eisetsu Town...**

After Rogue finished his pizza and Kira finished drinking her cup of hot cocoa at the bar, the two mages were now checking out some shops in the snowy town. Kira held a red wallet in her right hand while happily looking for something that would be nice to buy, and she would not mind if Rogue wanted something. She had paid for the orders at the bar with money from her wallet, which was actually her wallet that had been filled with emergency money that was gathered from her recent sales, but she didn't really care. To her, ten-thousand jewels was pocket change.

Entrusting her bag of money to Sting was probably a bad idea, as she did have the thought about him spending all that money carelessly, but Rogue did assure her that he would make Sting pay back any money that he chose to spend. The shadow dragon slayer saw Sting still standing in front of the fashion store that was at the other end of the street, no purchases in sight, and he thought that Sting was trying to act cool for the ladies of Eisetsu Town by acting like he felt completely invulnerable to the chilly weather.

The duo walked past some merchant shops while some merchants who recognized Kira from other towns were happy to greet her, and Rogue calmly smiled at how Kira seemed somewhat popular. She had talked with other merchants during the days of when people were bustling to their shops, and some of the merchants praised Kira's great skills with selling items. Even some thieves would want to buy swords or axes that she picked up from dead criminals who tried to fight her, and it was ironic that a criminal wanted to buy something legally.

Kira looked for something that would seem nice for herself or for Rogue, but nothing really seemed to catch her attention. There was a guy who sold a red staff that worked with Fire Magic, having the power to amplify it, but Kira wanted to take the more fair route of improving her fiery skills. She also saw a purple sword that had amazing effects in the hands of someone who wielded Darkness Magic, but that seemed bland to her. Rogue also seemed to be looking for something nice that could be purchased, but what would the mages find?

"Your name's Rogue, right? Do you see anything that you like?" Kira asked Rogue in a calm manner while her haze eyes were directed at him.

Rogue responded in an emotionless manner while putting his hands together for a moment, "Sadly, nothing seems interesting."

Kira replied as she proceeded to look at Rogue's hands, having a concerned facial expression while the cold winds somewhat strengthened, "Well, it's very interesting for me to see your hands."

Even though neither Sting or Rogue would openly say it right now, they felt like their hands were recently dunked into water that had a very frigid temperature. Rogue's hands were pretty numb to where he could hardly feel them, the cold winds having more of an effect than Kira's warmth, and the red-eyed dragon slayer hoped to get out of this town soon. Getting back to Sabertooth would be nice, especially when he would get to see Frosch again, and Rogue openly told Kira that he wanted to never come back to Eisetsu Town.

She could understand why he didn't want to come back here, especially since making a fireball in her left hand was barely warming up Rogue's frosty hands, and Kira hoped that she could help Rogue find some form of relief. There was a way to give heat to his hands quite quickly without setting them ablaze, but Kira would need something to help her with that task. The red-haired girl walked with Rogue while some people who passed by looked shocked to see Rogue's hands becoming light blue like ice, and dragon slayers who didn't eat fire were certainly susceptible to the bitter coldness.

Rogue also wore his usual attire while not even being properly dressed for the icy climate, and he hoped to not sneeze on Kira. He wasn't feeling sick, but Rogue did have to wonder if he'd end up catching a cold. That would definitely keep him from going out on jobs or even feeling well enough to help Sting with any paperwork that he couldn't handle on his own, and Rogue also didn't want to end up being the cause of Frosch getting a cold. After all, high fevers usually came with a cold and he really didn't want his green Exceed to get sick.

Kira continued to look concerned about Rogue while even seeing his body start to shiver from the cold, and her eyes quickly caught sight of something that a mage from Winter Snowflake had on his table. He was merely taking the job of filling in for the merchant who had other matters to handle right now, and this wizard wore black sunglasses to hide his eyes while he wore a blue toque that went with his spiky blue hair. He also wore a black ski jumpsuit with white ski pants to match, and his green snow boots were the same color as his square table.

"What would you two like to buy? You are going to buy something, right?" The skier asked the mages in a calm tone, trying to persuade them into making a purchase.

Kira told him while smiling nicely, ready to spend some money, "I'd like to buy those black mittens. They're large, but they look cool."

"They only cost 1,000 jewels." The guy explained to Kira while his mouth formed a grin of satisfaction.

Rogue watched Kira take out 1,000 jewels from her red wallet, and she immediately took the big mittens off of the table. She was hasty with putting them on Rogue's hands to keep him somewhat warm, and Kira put the wallet back into the right pocket of her brown winter pants. She kindly smiled at Rogue, who simply stayed emotionless, and Kira frowned a bit while hoping that he'd at least thank her for the mittens. She created a large fireball in her right hand while having it be between the two black mittens, and Kira focused the fireball to where only its heat would go outward while it spun in a clockwise manner.

She maintained her focus on the fireball while walking with Rogue, making his mittens be warmed up for them to provide more warmth to his hands, and the black-haired male observed how Kira had great control over this technique. It was actually something that she had been working on, but it was not complete. Kira only thought that it could be perfected by making the ball become four flames that would reform the ball with more power, but that was quite advanced. For now, her goals would probably have to be simple like how Sting had the simple goal of buying a dress for Yukino.

* * *

 **15 minutes later...**

Sting still stood in front of the fashion store while he thought about whether or not to spend some of Kira's money, hoping she would not be enraged if he chose to buy Yukino a nice gift, and the light dragon slayer could hear his red-haired friend talking with Rogue in a different part of the town where the palace was located. Apparently, visitors were not allowed inside without the permission of the mayor's daughter and she was out on a mission right now with her butler. Sting could guess that his friends were disappointed, just like how he felt disappointed right now.

He really wanted to show Yukino that he was grateful to her for the advice that she gave him, since choosing someone like Kira to join the guild was probably better than picking someone who seemed to be very perfect, but how could he do that? Building a giant snowman wouldn't really be the best way to show her that he thought she was awesome, and Sting sighed loudly as he looked frustrated. The cold wind blew past him while he was about to walk back into the fashion store for some moments of warmth, but a familiar voice stopped him.

"Excuse me, sir. I felt really bad about earlier." The green-haired woman told Sting in an apologetic manner while running up to him.

Sting responded to the woman while seeming quite puzzled, "Why is that? You didn't do anything."

"That's right. I did nothing to thank you for rescuing my daughter, and I see that you're still outside the fashion store. Whatever you want from there, I'll pay for it." The woman kindly told Sting while she began to smile at him, seeing the dragon slayer as a wonderful hero.

Sting promptly asked her how she would even get to purchase anything, stating that people needed Rainbow Crystals to shop in what seemed to be a high-end store, but the woman pulled out a green crystal from the left pocket of her green ski jacket. That was quite a surprise to Sting, and the woman informed him that the rhombus-shaped object was something given to her by her father before moving out of Kazehana Town. He wanted her to keep it as a nice memento, just in case she ever missed him and took a job that was very far from her old town.

Despite the fact that she was being really nice, Sting told her that he did not need her to show any sympathy to him. He claimed that fifty-thousand jewels was something he could get easily, which would allow him to purchase a nice blue dress for a wonderful friend, but the woman continued to kindly smile as she informed him that finding a Rainbow Crystal could be much harder than finding large amounts of money. Aside from the green crystal that her father gave to her, she hadn't found any others in several towns that she went to.

The mother of the girl that Sting's team rescued decided to give him some nice advice, too. She calmly told him to be pretty happy when someone did a really nice thing for him, as he could end up finding himself doing something similar later on for one of his friends, and acts of kindness would really have to be cherished. Sting found himself being unable to really argue with that logic, as he did care for his friends, and there was never anything wrong with letting someone handle something that he couldn't take care of.

He calmly told the woman about the dress with the icicles on the bottom of it, which she had seen before, and Sting didn't have to say another word. She went into the store with the intent to buy that dress, and that caused Sting to look through the shop's front door. He watched the woman pull out her green wallet from the right pocket of her green ski jacket, and the sight of her green crystal made the shop owner look delighted. That crystal allowed the woman to buy four different types of merchandise, including high-priced dresses, and she quickly handed fifty-thousand jewels to the blonde-haired shopkeeper.

"Thank you so much for this dress. Samantha's a great designer." The woman told the owner in a calm tone while she smiled, taking the hanger and dress off of the rack.

The shopkeeper replied calmly as she went behind the counter to pick up a blue shopping bag for the customer, smiling nicely, "Yes, she's a great fashion icon."

After receiving the bag and putting the dress in it, the woman exited the shop to see Sting standing there with a calm facial expression. She kindly handed the bag to him and bowed politely, before running back home to chck on her daughter, but Sting stopped her by saying that he couldn't just take the dress without giving her some money that would probably needed to feed her daughter. She refused his offer while kindly saying that it was fine, since she and her daughter were going on a mission tomorrow that would pay quite well, and the woman simply told Sting that he could repay that favor by helping someone else.

Sting looked at the blue shopping bag with a nice smile, but then he began to scoff. When would he ever find himself in the situation of having to use a crystal to help someone else buy something? He thought that day would never come, but he did always boast about how he was strong and smart enough to do anything. By that logic, Sting could be strong enough to someday obtain a Rainbow Crystal. His strength would hopefully be as immense as his kindness towards Yukino, who he saw running towards him with a delightful look on her face as she seemed ready to go home.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 4? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Also, would it be a good idea for me to put Fairy Tail or NaLu in this story to fit the prequel's events? Fanfiction is so exciting! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

 **Surprises**

* * *

Sting and Lector were currently in the office of the Sabertooth guild while the blue shopping bag from Eisetsu Town was on the floor near the filing cabinet, and the duo had been thinking about how to surprise Yukino. She did not ask about what was in the bag from the snowy town, as she simply felt that Sting wanted a souvenir to take back with him to the town of Shioru, and Sting felt really glad that he would be able to give Yukino that nice dress. Of course, he wouldn't want to surprise her enough to make her be extremely startled.

Lector stood on Sting's desk while hoping that Yukino would even like the dress, and Sting had told him how a grateful woman paid for the dress with her own money. Yukino would probably ignore the color or appearance of the dress and really focus on how Sting did something nice for her, and that would just strengthen their friendship to a greater level. Lector felt confident about Sting's skills with delivering surprises to people, and it really seemed like nothing would go wrong. After all, the light dragon slayer was always sure that he could make the best plans.

The door to the guild master's office was open, and Sting could see that Yukino was in front of the golden request board to handle her small task of picking out a new job for Kira. Sting decided that he would not help the Celestial Spirit Wizard with choosing the job, as she would probably choose an easy job for Kira to handle, and the male with blue eyes felt like he could just wait for her to bring Kira into the guild again. That would be the perfect time to surprise her, even if that seemed like a cheap way to do it, but Sting would also remember to buy her some breakfast.

He did wonder about what task Yukino was deciding to unpin from the board, however, and his curiosity came from the fact that he hadn't seen many easy jobs on the job. There were some on the board, but would Kira even like them? After all, it would not be good for a mage to go out on a job that they couldn't handle. Yukino was smart enough to not send Kira out on any tasks where she would most likely get killed, though, so it was good for Sting to see his friend stand in front of the request board while looking deep in thought.

"I wonder which one she'll choose." Sting said aloud to himself in a calm manner, as his eyes were fixated on Yukino.

Lector replied nicely with a confident smirk on his face, "Yukino-san must want to send Kira-san out on the best job ever!"

The two males watched Yukino move her left hand to the top-left corner of the board where a green flyer was located, her hazel eyes examining the job's description and reward, but then they saw her move that hand downward to the lower section of the board. Her eyes went from the left side of the board to the right side of it, and Yukino soon smiled at the sight of a red flyer on the board. Judging by how the client seemed like it was an urgent matter to handle, this job seemed like it was perfect for Kira to handle.

As Yukino cutely smiled about the job she picked out, she felt like someone was watching her. She turned towards Sting's office to see him and Lector comically shifting their eyes from her to some papers on the desk that were pretty irrelevant, but Yukino just ignored their actions and proceeded to walk out of Sabertooth's entrance doors. She hoped that Kira would be delighted about this job, since the client would give her quite a hefty reward for completing it, and Yukino wondered if the fire-wielding mage would be in her pajamas again.

Sting felt like it would be good to just surprise her with the dress, but he soon had another thought. What if he was able to gt her a nice cake to go with it? Even though Minerva and other girls in the Sabertooth guild didn't like to have their dresses be dirtied in any way, they still did like having some delicious cake on special occasions. Having something really sweet to go with a lovely dress would definitely make Sting's present for Yukino seem even nicer, and he simply smiled about his plan in a cocky manner.

Lector watched Sting get up from his chair while they both seemed optimistic about what would happen on this calm morning, and the red Exceed proceeded to fly out of the office while Sting decided to run beside him. They were going to show Yukino that she was an awesome friend who deserved some form of gratitude for inspiring Sting to find a new guild member, and Sting also wondered what flavor of cake would be the best one for Yukino to eat. He hadn't asked her about that last year or even during this year, so Sting would just have to take a chance.

"Chocolate cake sounds good, right?" Sting asked Lector while his cocky facial expression slowly became a calm one.

Lector responded as he smiled happily at the thought of Yukino enjoying the cake, "That's a great flavor for her, Sting-kun!"

They ran out of the Sabertooth guild and headed towards the town's bakery, determined to buy the best chocolate cake for the girl who wielded two Golden Zodiac Gate Keys, and Sting felt extremely glad that the current time was 7:35 in the morning. The bakery would sadly not be open for the rest of the hour, however, but Sting would not mind waiting. In fact, this was probably the best plan that a customer could have for trying to buy whatever they wanted. If the store was not open now, then it would be better to simply wait outside.

Sting began to picture the sight of Yukino seeing the dress and happily hugging him for buying something so fashionable, and he'd love to just watch her eat the chocolate cake. After the celebration was done, then he'd probably admit that the dress was not bought with his own cash. Yukino wasn't the type of girl who liked people that lied in friendships, but Sting would definitely tell her that he really wanted to give her something special. If Sting cared about Yukino that much, then would she really be upset with him?

* * *

 **20 minutes later, at Kira's house...**

After knocking on Kira's front door and waiting for her to finally respond, Yukino was quite happy to see the red-haired girl open the door. She simply wore a red T-shirt with a black skirt, and Kira completed the outfit with a nice pair of red flat shoes. She was not going to let Yukino see her wearing pajamas again, so Kira had to think ahead. She felt quite happy to see the girl with light blue hair on this nice morning, and the red flyer in Yukino's hands made Kira start to grin with excitement at the job that would be handled today.

Yukino handed the flyer to Kira for the purpose of letting her see the job's description and its reward, but the Celestial Spirit Wizard became quite surprised from seeing her friend's grin of excitement change to a look of shock. This was quite a major task that had to deal with a certain incident that recently involved Kira, and she was very glad that Sting got himself into that matter. This job pertained to the Rainbow Crystals, since some guilds actually did try to seek them out, and this guild was actually the tenth-strongest dark guild in Fiore.

This job seemed like it could be a pretty large one for Kira to handle, but she began to smile with confidence at the thought of handling it alone. If she could stop this guild from getting their hands on a Rainbow Crystal or even manage to take one from them, then she'd be a pretty good mage. There was a high possibility that many mages in a guild could give her trouble by how she'd be outnumbered, but that really meant nothing to the quirky merchant. In fact, she was looking forward to what would happen on this mission.

The guild that Kira would be dealing with was known as Hell's Blaze, and maps of Fiore had informed her that it was in the southwestern part of the country. It wasn't in the lowest part of the southwestern area, as that was the swampy and dark area that acted as a border between the towns of Tsukiari and Mumargi, but the Hell's Blaze guild was up north from them while it was in the woods. The rumors about the guilds and the two towns didn't seem to intimidate Kira at all, and she closed her front door before slowly walking past Yukino.

"Kira-sama, don't you want me or Sting-sama to accompany you?" Yukino asked her while looking somewhat concerned, not wanting her friend to get severely hurt.

Kira replied with a smile on her face, before giggling, "Don't worry, Yukino! This job will be a piece of cake for me, and I'll be back before you know it!"

Yukino watched Kira run off towards the train station while she could only hope that Kira would be fine, and Yukino would not accompany someone on a job if they didn't need her to assist them. She respected Kira's decision to go on that job by herself, but Yukino would feel incredibly guilty if anything bad happened to her friend. She picked out the job, which meant that Sting would probably berate her for the job's failure, but the fact that Kira felt sure of herself meant that something had to be going on in her head.

Whether it was just plain arrogance or thinking up a fiery strategy that would be quite hot, Kira saw no need for Yukino or anyone else to worry. Any mage that doubled as a merchant knew that strategy was highly vital with making sales and making sure that each mission went smoothly, so it wasn't like Kira would just charge into a dark guild like a complete idiot. She was probably trying to think ahead, and that kind of thinking would most likely help her out. Yukino was worried about her, but she couldn't just follow her.

There was something else to really consider, too. If Yukino did go on the mission with Kira and end up getting taken hostage by some mages, that would just make the mission be far more dangerous. If Kira was told to not attack or Yukino would die, then they would both just be in danger. That really wouldn't help the situation at all, so it was probably good for Yukino to just stay in Shioru Town. Leaving that job in Kira's hands was a very tough thing to do, but even Sting and Rogue took some jobs by themselves while not having any doubts about their strength.

Yukino sighed softly as she decided to just go back to the Sabertooth guild, and she began to walk away from Kira's house. As Yukino looked at some shops that were on the other side of Shioru Town, however, she soon heard Sting and Lector let out happy cheers of joy. They startled the owner of the bakery, who had just arrived at his store with the key to open the door, and Yukino merely blinked her hazel eyes in a startled manner. Sting seemed like he was too occupied to deal with anything involving Kira right now, and that left Yukino to simply keep this matter to herself.

 _"If Kira-sama takes too long to get back, though, then I'll try to find the Hell's Blaze guild."_ Yukino thought to herself while looking calm, hoping Kira would return later in the day.

Sting had been the person who ordered mages to form rescue teams when one of the guild's members went missing, and he always wanted to hear news of the missing member being alive. If Yukino told him tonight that Kira was not back yet from her job, Sting and Rogue would personally look for her. Yukino wasn't trying to be overprotective, but Kira was still the newest person in the guild. She did not want her friend to die before they even got to boost their friendship to a decent level, and Yukino wished that she could've at least sent Libra after her without draining magical power.

She went back to the guild while really hoping that Kira would be okay, especially since the previous mission was nothing like carrying out an assassination on a powerful member of Hell's Blaze, and even Yukino would not have taken that job for herself. Killing a fearsome criminal was something that couldn't be accomplished easily, and succeeding with that task in front of other guild members in Hell's Blaze would probably get them to be riled up. If Kira did anything to anger them further, then they'd probably send her a nice surprise.

* * *

 **45 minutes later, at the Sabertooth guild...**

Yukino sat down at a table in the Sabertooth guild while she wondered what Sting and Lector had been doing at the bakery, and she hoped that they were enjoying some breakfast. The two golden keys of Libra and Pisces were on the brown table while Yukino's mind would not allow her to stop having some unpleasant thoughts about how Kira's mission could go, but how would the Celestial Spirit Wizard manage to help her? It was true that Yukino also had the golden key for the thirteenth spirit that was rumored to be powerful, but she remembered how Kagura sliced through it in the Grand Magic Games with her sword still sheathed.

Even though Yukino was allowed back into the Sabertooth guild, that incident tended to appear in her thoughts from time to time. If she had been physically stronger last year, would she have been able to win? There was really no way to know, since that fight was in the past, but Yukino did think that she could've trained more. The fact that she lost the match so easily was probably one of the most humiliating things that she ever had to deal with, but it was even more shameful that all she could do was summon spirits.

Yukino wanted to be a great Celestial Spirit Wizard, but she could not just summon spirits. There were actually other spells of Celestial Spirit Magic that could be quite powerful, even spells that could be highly explosive, and Yukino would simply have to learn them. If she could make herself become stronger, then her spirits would definitely gain more strength as well. She began to smile at the thought of Libra having stronger Gravity Magic that could even create some cracks in the ground, and Yukino would also love to see Pisces move much faster.

She also wondered if Lucy Heartfilia from the Fairy Tail guild was getting much stronger with the ten Celestial Spirits that were by her side, recalling how she made Taurus and Scorpio work pretty well together in her match against Flare Corona from Raven Tail, and Yukino hoped to fight well against Lucy if they ever had to be matched up against each other. Yukino's desire to get stronger prompted her to grab Libra's key and open the Gate of The Scales, causing the black-haired Celestial Spirit to appear beside her, and Yukino only had one request.

"Libra, please get me a book from the Celestial Spirit World." Yukino said in a calm tone of voice as she smiled in a kind manner.

The woman with tan skin replied in an obedient manner, as she nodded her head, "As you wish, Yukino."

Yukino added calmly, hoping to be somewhat more specific, "Please get me a book on Celestial Spirit Magic, and I'd prefer if it focused on long-range techniques."

Libra obeyed Yukino's orders and went back to the Celestial Spirit World, leaving the hazel-eyed girl to simply deal with her thoughts about improving her skills to where she could greatly assist her friends on various jobs, and Yukino felt like it would be good to inform Sting about how she'd accompany Kira on her next job. Yukino got up from the table, and she walked towards Sting's office with the intent to just wait for him to come back with Lector. After the males returned to the guild, then they'd probably be quite happy to talk with her.

She narrowed her eyes while easily making it to the guild master's office, thinking about what she would say to Sting, and Yukino really wanted to display a high amount of determination. She took at least five steps past Sting's chair while wondering if it would be okay to sit down, but Yukino's eyes widened in a curious manner as she saw the blue bag that just rested against the wall. Sting seemed to have something nice in there, and Yukino wondered if it was for Lector. It really wouldn't hurt for her to just take a peek at it, though.

Yukino let her left hand gently grab the blue dress to pull it out of the bag, and she gasped in an awestruck manner at how beautiful it looked upon being unfolded. Sting certainly did not get that dress for himself or Lector to wear, and Minerva always carried enough cash to where she didn't need anyone to buy dresses for her. Yukino held the dress in front of her own body for a moment to see how it fit nicely, and she smiled happily at the icicles that were at the bottom of the dress. They were not real, but they still felt quite cold.

The white tag on the bottom of the dress informed Yukino that the designer of this dress was Samantha Kalos, a woman who she heard about in one of the recent issues of Sorcerer Magazine, and her clothes were said to be quite expensive. Even models like Jenny Realight wished to wear clothes made by Samantha, but Yukino began to blush light pink at how the dress would look great on her. The fact that Sting could even afford this great gift was surprising, especially if it was meant for her, but he slowly walked into Sabertooth to surprise her even more.

"If you're here, Yukino, then we've got a surprise for you! You totally deserve it!" Sting exclaimed as he walked into the guild with a great smile on his face, as he carried a chocolate cake that looked very delicious.

Yukino replied kindly while turning around and holding the dress, "Hi, Sting-sama."

The sight of Yukino holding the beautiful blue dress made Sting walk several steps forward to place the chocolate cake on a table, before dropping his jaw in shock, and Lector also looked stunned to see that Yukino was about to change into the dress. The one flaw in their surprise for Yukino was the fact that they didn't keep the bag for the dress out of Yukino's reach, and she gave Sting a curious look about why he seemed incredibly shocked. Even though the light dragon slayer could make some really good plans, this one comically backfired.

Yukino walked out of Sting's office and asked him about why he seemed so surprised, which caused him to calm down before saying that the dress was actually for her to wear, and Sting let out a soft breath. He kindly told Yukino that the dress and the cake were gifts to her, and he felt so thankful that she helped him have the desire to find the guild's newest member. Sting also smiled at Yukino while telling her that she probably made Sabertooth be on a good path towards becoming the best guild in Fiore, and he caused her to smile nicely from saying that she took her time with choosing Kira's job because of how it was probably the most epic one of the day.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 5? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

 **Fiery Passion & Celestial Determination**

* * *

Kira currently stood in front of the guild building that belonged to Hell's Blaze, liking how it was a wooden red building with a large roof in the middle while two smaller roofs were on its left and right sides, but she was not intimidated by the size of the building. The red-haired mage giggled at how there were two black torches on both sides of the guild's entrance, liking how the large fires crackled loudly as the flames danced around, and she wondered why the guild members would have these flames burning during the daytime.

The train ride from Shioru Town to the marshlands that separated Tsukiari Town from Mumargi Town had taken at least four hours, and the current time was 11:30 in the morning. Without any hesitation or consideration for the guild members possibly eating lunch right now, Kira pushed open the red entrance doors that were wooden. They creaked open to reveal that the guildhall was surprisingly in a neat state, and several guild members chatted with each other at red square tables while they sat in ruby red chairs.

The red tiled floor resembled honeycombs in beehives, and the walls were painted red to go with the floor's nice color. There was a bar across from the entrance, and one woman was working behind it while four wizards sat on stools for the purpose of enjoying some nice drinks. There was a red request board in this guild, and the jobs that were pinned on it had actually been stolen from other guilds. Kira's hazel eyes even got to see a wooden ledge nailed into the eastern wall while seven books were on it, and the lone red book on that ledge looked interesting to her.

Kira took some steps into the guildhall while smiling nicely with the red flyer in her hands, but the mere sight of her caused some people to abruptly end their conversations. They were quite silent while other people noticed the ceasing of conversations and followed suit, leaving Kira to simply walk towards the bar without anyone saying a word to her, and she honestly didn't mind the silence at all. The atmosphere may changed from being normal to being tense, but Kira remained pretty confident as she walked up to the bartender.

"Excuse me, but where can I find Hiroko Katsura?" Kira asked in a calm tone of voice, before putting the flyer in front of the bartender's face.

The woman with violet eyes and her black hair styled in two buns replied nicely with a smirk on her face, "Hey, Hiroko. Someone else is ready for you to burn them into ashes."

A girl responded in an arrogant manner as Kira turned around to see her get up from the table, "Wow, this chick strolls in here with confidence and now she wants to challenge me."

Hiroko Katsuda was a girl who had long pink hair that went well with the skin-tight red top that she wore, and the top showed off the upper part of her breasts while it also left her belly exposed. She also wore a red miniskirt that matched the pair of pink high-heeled boots that went up to her knees, and she completed her outfit with ruby red gloves. Her eyes were cherry red, and the villain proceeded to crack her knuckles as she didn't perceive Kira to be tough at all. Many people tried to assassinate Hiroko in the past, but they ended up getting burnt to a crisp.

Kira shot out a large fireball from her mouth and hoped that it would inflict massive damage upon Hiroko, but the antagonist simply stretched out her left hand. She fired a large beam of fire at Kira's projectile, ultimately going right through it, and the bartender ran away with the nearby mages while the beam struck Kira! She took damage from the attack that resulted in large flames filling the guildhall, and Kira soon felt harsh burns on her body. That attack was known as Fiery Phoenix Blade, and it could pierce through fiery attacks while also absorbing their energy to boost its destructive power. Not only could it explode, but it always left burns on foes.

Flames engulfed Kira's right fist as she decided to run towards Hiroko, hoping that she was the type of mage that didn't specialize in close combat, and the mage from Sabertooth quickly got in her enemy's face. She swung her right fist at Hiroko, only to see her viciously grab her wrist, and the villain harshly squeezed Kira's wrist while delivering a harsh punch to her stomach. She aimed her left hand at some flames behind Kira for them to come flying towards her, and Hiroko surprised Kira by eating the large flames.

Hiroko punched Kira in the stomach four more times, sending her flying backwards, but Hiroko also applied Fire Magic to her feet for the purpose of moving at rapid speeds. She ran towards Kira and kicked her in the chest with her left foot, sending her flying up high into the air, and Hiroko sprang up high to be above her. She slammed her right leg down on Kira's breasts to make her feel tremendous pain, even seeing her cough up some blood, and Kira was sent crashing down into the ground. Hiroko landed beside her, and she could see the Sabertooth mage's silhouette through the smoke. Hiroko watched Kira roll over on to her right side, and she merely smirked as the smoke cleared up.

"I am Hiroko Katsura, the seventh-strongest guild member of Hell's Blaze. State your name, if a weakling like you can even still breathe." The antagonist said to Kira with a displeased facial expression, finding her to be quite mediocre.

Kira replied while struggling to stand up, panting heavily from all the damage she took, "Kira Blazia is my name, and I am Sabertooth's newest rookie."

Upon hearing that she was from Sabertooth, Hiroko and the guild members couldn't resist the urge to laugh. One of the other female members even had the audacity to say that Sabertooth must be a trash guild for accepting people like Kira, and another girl even brought up how no mage from Sabertooth could ever find the seven Rainbow Crystals before anyone in Hell's Blaze. To these punks, Sabertooth was full of weaklings. Kira could only clench her fists in anger from hearing all the laughter, and she certainly didn't see herself as a weakling.

Kira slowly walked over to some large flames and consumed them, but she used her Fire Magic to make the fiery heat surround her body. She ate more of the flames while being determined to not make Sabertooth look bad, and she thought about how Yukino hadn't followed her. The fact that Sting and Yukino were letting Kira handle this job on her own simply meant that they believed in the strength of the quirky girl, and Kira would not let them down. She was glad that Hiroko showed off her best moves, and Kira began to smile as she felt inspired to use moves of her own.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, at the Sabertooth guild...**

Libra came back from the Celestial Spirit World with a white spell book that she held in her hands. She placed it on the table where Yukino had been sitting as she drank a cup of sugary tea, and the gravity-altering Celestial Spirit was quite glad that she fulfilled her master's order. Yukino stopped drinking her tea for a moment to see Libra go back home, and her hazel eyes soon looked down at the white book. It was merely titled _Celestial Spirit Magic, Vol. 7_ , and it seemed pretty interesting. What spells would Yukino find inside the book, though?

She opened up the book to the first page for the purpose of simply seeing the table of contents, and Yukino began to flip through several pages. She got to see the pictures of every spell, along with their descriptions, and some spells looked very appealing to Yukino while others sadly seemed to be too advanced for her right now. She turned the page to see one spell that looked really interesting while it also seemed to not rely on the golden Zodiac Gate keys, and that caused Yukino to start reading this spell's instructions.

This spell was simply called Celestial Starry Swift, and it simply required Yukino to stretch out her right arm while her palm had to be aimed upward. She needed to focus her magical power into the center of her palm, which she proceeded to do, and Yukino gasped in amazement from seeing a golden sphere form in her right hand. It grew to the size of her hand while Yukino maintained her focus on it, and the sphere soon propelled upward. The sight of it amazed Minerva, who was at a distant table, but what happened next was quite shocking.

The sphere burst into several golden stars that were half its size, and they began to float around in a circle. They soon fell to the ground and created golden blasts of energy that were quite large, destroying several of the tables in the guildhall while creating golden light that was quite bright, and Yukino could sense this attack's level of power. It was certainly quite high, and the Celestial Starry Swift spell could also be used for taking down multiple opponents very quickly. Yukino liked this spell, but seeing it fade away to reveal scorch marks on the carpet and broken tables was certainly not good.

"Who in the world decided to use their magic in the guildhall?" Minerva asked in a stern manner, as she noticed that the waves of the blasts knocked over her cup of tea.

Yukino replied in an apologetic manner while looking somewhat embarrassed, "I'm so sorry, Minerva-sama. I wasn't intending to destroy anything."

Upon hearing Yukino admit to being the user of that destructive spell, Minerva could only widen her emerald green eyes in an extremely shocked manner. She did not expect Yukino to have a spell like that, especially since she mainly worked with her spirits, and Minerva thought that it would be a fantastic idea for her to walk up to the table where Yukino was sitting. This day had already been surprising with Sting and Lector getting Yukino a chocolate cake that was eaten an hour after they brought it into Sabertooth, and now Yukino was delivering a surprise.

Yukino turned another page in the book to see another spell that looked quite cool, and she read it aloud at the same moment that Minerva fired an energy wave in her direction. The spell was simply known as Celestial Chain, and it surprisingly made a large golden aura appear in front of Yukino. The aura hastily split itself into seven stars that were in the same golden color, and one of them moved forward to get hit by Minerva's attack. The star continued to float in midair, however, and it didn't just act as a shield.

The star fired a golden energy wave from its center at high speeds, harshly striking Minerva, and it created a golden blast of energy! Minerva groaned in pain from taking that harsh attack, noticing how its properties felt like dense metal, and this new spell could actually reflect certain attacks while greatly infusing Celestial Spirit Magic into them. The smoke cleared up to reveal that Minerva was badly bruised from that attack, but she gave Yukino a smile of respect for having spells that contained such tremendous strength.

Yukino was glad to receive that respect from Minerva, especially after getting too confident in last year's Grand Magic Games, and she felt like it would be good to learn more spells from this book. There were several spells that Yukino would enjoy using, but she wouldn't just use them on missions with Minerva, Kira, or the twin dragon slayers. Yukino felt like she really needed to improve herself in her own ways, create her own strategies, and she wanted to work very hard to where Sting didn't have to rescue her on missions.

"Minerva-sama, I'll get stronger. If Sting-sama lets me, I'll go out on a journey to improve myself. I'll come back sometimes, though. I just want to change myself into something better." Yukino explained to her friend with a soft smile on her face, as she watched the Celestial Chain spell fade away.

Minerva replied nicely while closing her eyes and folding her arms, "That's understandable, Yukino. If your goal is to become much stronger with Celestial Spirit Magic, then I think that's a fine goal. You'd probably become physically stronger and wield more magical power than that piece of trash I tortured in last year's Naval Battle, and you'd prove that your number of keys means nothing."

Yukino began to look slightly uncertain about becoming strong enough to truly defeat someone like Kagura or Erza, but Minerva told her to keep looking confident. She felt like Yukino would someday become strong enough to defeat Kagura and make up for her loss, or someone would probably avenge her. Yukino calmly told Minerva that she'd learn more spells and possibly even combine some of them together to make fantastic moves that would go well with smart strategies, and she'd work on them while trying to enjoy her journey.

As Yukino started walking past the table to go out of her guild for the purpose of going home to start packing her suitcase, she kindly asked Minerva if she'd ease up on her harshness towards Kira. Yukino had heard Minerva talking badly about Kira to some other women in the guild while thinking the red-haired merchant was extremely weak, but Yukino felt like Kira would someday surprise Minerva. Her own confidence in herself that was building up allowed Yukino to also believe that Kira would be okay on the mission she was currently handling, and Yukino hoped that Kira's eyes that were filled with excitement would help her Fire Magic thrive.

* * *

 **Back at the Hell's Blaze guild...**

Kira unleashed a red vortex of fire from her mouth while feeling its temperature to be quite hot, watching it go towards Hiroko at high speeds, and Kira's foe ran towards the attack. She tried to eat the red flames, only to be halted by the sight of Kira jumping up high, and the red-haired merchant unleashed red blobs from her mouth. They struck the vortex, heating it up even more, and the attack soon exploded in Hiroko's face! She was sent flying backwards to where she hit the wall, and the explosion shook the guild quite violently.

Hiroko slid down to the floor and got up to see Kira shoot more red blobs from her mouth, but what were they? As Kira fell to the ground and Hiroko ran towards her, the antagonist found herself slipping on the red goop. She began to wince in pain from how Kira's red goop felt extremely hot, burning away the soles of her pink boots, and Hiroko ended up losing all of her speed. Kira threw some fireballs at the goop around Hiroko to make more fiery explosions occur, sending her high into the air, and the tables seemed to have turned.

Hiroko would not let Kira easily win, however, and she shot out seven fireballs from her mouth. That only prompted Kira to make flames engulf her fists, and she let her hands touch her opponent's projectiles. The flames around Kira's hands began to grow in size from how they absorbed the fireballs, which would greatly increase the strength of her punches, and Kira's left hand gained power from three fireballs while the same thing occurred with the flames growing around her right hand. She glared up at Hiroko while that last fireball came down, but what was Kira planning to do?

Much to the surprise of Hiroko and the other guild members, Kira aggressively punched the fireball with her right fist. It was sent back up towards Hiroko, who could see that Kira's punch infused her own ferocious flames into the fireball, and she was struck by the attack! It created a red blast of fire in midair, making flames rain down upon the guildhall, and several of the tables were set ablaze while the guild members looked panicked enough to start running towards the guild's entrance. As Hiroko harshly fell to the floor, Kira was planning to end this.

"You really shouldn't have laughed at me for being in Sabertooth, and now I'll deliver some payback." Kira told Hiroko in a fierce manner, before going to some tables that were covered in large flames that could be eaten.

Hiroko told her in a condescending tone while getting up, still underestimating her, "Give it your best shot, but I doubt that it's anything to be afraid of."

After consuming the last flames that she could eat, Kira applied her Fire Magic to her lower body. Her legs and feet had much more energy, allowing her to run at high speeds while she left behind a trail of hot flames, and she delivered seven punches to Hiroko's body while hitting her with tremendous force! She was probably using the same amount of force that Minerva would use in a fight, and Kira also found herself to be fast enough to avoid a punch that Hiroko swung at her. When Hiroko attempted to punch her again, Kira simply ducked and waited for a good opportunity to strike.

She soon stood back up nearly in the same moment she dealt a powerful uppercut to Hiroko's chin, sending her flying high into the air to where she nearly touched the ceiling, and Hiroko coughed up some blood while she fell down towards a table that was still ablaze. She crashed into the table while falling from such a high height also made an explosion occur, and the other mages could only look quite shocked from hearing their friend let out painful screams of agony. Kira's flaming attacks were certainly strong, and Hiroko took immense damage.

The antagonist could barely move any of her muscles while being badly wounded, feeling some sharp pieces of wood from the table be lodged into her body, and the flames that burnt her skin would definitely eat away at her life. Kira even decided to shoot out a small red vortex of lava from her mouth, only to see it add more fuel to the flames, and Hiroko was now being charred in a large twister. She could feel her skin literally melting away from the intense heat while the pain was far too intense for her to stay conscious, and Hiroko would burn to death.

None of the other guild members were courageous enough to fight Kira Blazia while some of them even thought of hiding in the town of Tsukiari for their own safety, but one red-haired girl who wore a black dress simply stood with her gang members as she looked angry at how one of the guild's members was now dead. She really wanted to go in there and attempt to strangle Kira, but forming a smart plan to seal her fate would probably be better than suicide. The guild members watched Kira power down and pant heavily from using so much magical power, and she turned around to see something that fell off of the ledge where the books were located.

"What's this?" Kira curiously asked aloud while her eyes caught sight of a red book that fell on to the carpet, oddly not being damaged by the fire.

One of the female guild members shouted in a displeased tone, seeing the twister around Hiroko's lifeless body fade away, "Whatever you found, just take it and go! We hope to never see you ever again!"

The other guild members agreed while they all decided to stand on the left and right sides of the entrance, not even wanting to block Kira from leaving, and they saw the smoke clear up to reveal that Kira was taking a red spell book from their damaged guildhall. That book was stolen by one of the guild members in Hell's Blaze, who would ironically have to deal with Kira stealing the red book from them, and that book actually belonged to someone else. They had no need for it right now, but the spell book would probably make things more interesting for Sabertooth.

Kira ran out of the Hell's Blaze guild to go get her reward of 700,000 jewels from the client who would be waiting in Tsukiari Town, and even the guy she ran into a few days ago didn't feel like challenging her to a fight. Kira could only tell those guild members that they needed to keep their hands off of the Rainbow Crystals, and that prompted the girl in the black dress to angrily clench her fists while silently vowing to get revenge for this. Kira may have just been handling a job, but this would most likely start a guild war. However, the person who Kira angered would have something better in store for her.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 6? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Also, this prequel may be ending soon.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

 **Where The Prologue Ends & The Adventure Begins**

* * *

Five months after the events at Hell's Blaze occurred, Kira was in Sting's office while she was smiling happily. Her success on that job actually surprised him, due to the red-haired merchant telling him how she ate flames to boost her level of power, and telling him how she fought quite fiercely for Sabertooth made Sting see that Kira would be a permanent member of the guild while not just using Sabertooth as a stepping stone. She had taken many missions lately, but Sting had accompanied her on two recent jobs that were quite interesting.

The first job was the simple task of delivering medicine to a sick person in the town of Magnolia, and finishing that job very quickly allowed Kira and Sting to see Natsu handling his own job of taking down some bandits who were attempting to rob the town's bank. Seeing him unleash his Fire Dragon's Roar multiple times inspired Kira to create a move that would allow her to unleash her own spiraling beam of hot flames. Sting noticed how Kira's new attack looked reminiscent of Natsu's signature move, but she named it Fiery Belch to suit her.

The second interesting job was at a beautiful lake filled with sparkling blue water, and the enemy had fired several beams of water at Kira. She managed to evade them all by hula dancing, however, and she learned that type of dance from the people who lived in the town of Kasai. That place was on Emblaze Island, an island known for its large volcano and great amount of tourism, and Kira was glad to have seen people hula dancing when she went there to do some shopping on the week after she defeated Hiroko in the Hell's Blaze guild.

Sting called Kira into his office for the purpose of telling her that he heard something about an item called the Fire Crystal being on Emblaze Island, but Kira already knew about that from going to Kasai Town the first time and hearing about stories that involved the volcano. There were multiple Fire Crystals inside different parts of the volcano, but Kira herself did not end up finding any of them. There was one at a pedestal during the tour given to tourists and regular citizens, but everyone was ordered to keep their hands off of it. Sting didn't call Kira into his office for the purpose of finding Rainbow Crystals, however.

"When I arrived at the guild this morning, Kira, I found a job that looked pretty suspicious. It was addressed specifically to you, but I don't think you should take it." Sting explained to his friend in a calm manner, hoping she wouldn't end up in a dangerous situation.

Kira replied nicely with confidence in her voice, starting to grin, "Don't worry, Sting. Whatever the job is, I'm sure I'll be back here for my lunch or dinner at sunset."

Before Sting could say anything, Kira ran out of his office to check Sabertooth's request board for the job sent to her. He wondered if it would be wise to inform Natsu about this job today, since the pink-haired dragon slayer was known for eating fire, but let's just say that Natsu and his team members actually dealt with a surprising situation earlier in the day. At least Sting would try to comfort one of his teammates who cried about a guy rejecting, and he certainly wouldn't confide his feelings in someone who wouldn't share them with the person who got rejected.

Sting's blue eyes caught sight of the red guild mark on Kira's left wrist, and the insignia was stamped on her by Lector after she came back from assassinating Hiroko. The red Exceed and Sting were glad that she came back alive with her reward, but Lector felt that finally giving Kira the guild mark was the best reward she could get. However, Sting did decide that he'd keep an eye on Kira to prevent her from taking any jobs that might lead to her demise. If one of the guild members ended up dying, then Sting would be totally distraught about it.

He considered every member of the guild to be his friend, even Minerva, and Sting didn't want anyone to be severely injured. The job that Kira would take seemed like one she could handle, but Sting would definitely work alongside her on it. Of course, he wouldn't directly go to the job's location with her. Sting decided that he would head to the site of the job before Kira even got there, and the light dragon slayer did love delivering surprises to certain person. For the person who sent that job to the guild, they'd surprisingly get a harsh punch to the face.

Sting looked down at his desk while frowning in a stern manner, wondering if this plan would even be successful, and he hoped to not run after the villain and see them end up having Kira as a hostage. It may have been quite cliched for a villain to possibly tell Sting that he couldn't unleash any attacks or Kira would end up dying, but situations like that could actually happen. He did not want to deal with this hard task by himself, but Sting luckily had a good friend who would be very glad to help him with this trouble concerning Kira.

"What jobs should we take today, Sting?" Rogue asked him in an emotionless tone, before getting up and walking to his office.

Sting told Rogue in a tense manner while looking up from his desk, "Well, Rogue, we're going to have a crazy job on our hands soon. In fact, we'll need to take a boat to Emblaze Island."

The sheer thought of being on a boat made Rogue feel very sick, not even wanting to be on a boat that would probably move at slow speeds, and he wouldn't hold back with asking about why Sting would even need to handle a job that required the dragon slayers to travel by boat. Sting informed him that the task wasn't for himself, but it was a matter concerning Kira. Sting told Rogue about the odd job that appeared on a typical brown flyer, almost sounding like a threat, and the dragon slayers could not just let that slide.

Rogue narrowed his red eyes at the thought of someone truly being foolish enough to threaten one of Sabertooth's guild members, and he would not even care if the client wanted to battle Kira in a one-on-one fight. Sending any kind of threat to the Sabertooth guild was like asking for major trouble, and Rogue would be glad to help Sting beat down whoever intended to kill Kira. That could be easier said than done, though, but Rogue could care less. He wondered if Sting would want them to unleash the Holy Shadow Dragon's Flash Fang again, and Rogue would be happy to use it for this situation.

* * *

 **10 minutes later, at the request board...**

After she waited for Yukino to be finished with picking out a job that involving taking down some tough criminals with her new Celestial Spirit Magic, Kira went in front of the board to find the job that literally had her name on it. She thought that it could just be a weak wizard trying to act tough by threateningly challenging her to a fight, but let's just say that the situation would escalate beyond being something that petty. As Kira unpinned the brown flyer from the board, she was actually more shocked about the reward than the job's description.

The client for this job was offering 900,000 jewels to Kira, which was definitely a hefty sum of money, so how could the girl with hazel eyes even think of passing up this opportunity? That high amount of money could help Kira buy more nice things that she needed, as well as giving her a great abundance of food, and Kira would also probably spend it on books that could help her with finding the Rainbow Crystals. Even though the history books in Fiore wouldn't exactly have much info on those crystals, it was still worth a try.

She turned around to see Yukino looking at the job she picked out, and Yukino's desire to go on a journey didn't mean that she couldn't stop by Sabertooth from time to time. The Celestial Spirit Wizard had no interest in hunting for the Rainbow Crystals, but she would want to see how her friends were doing. She had spoken with Kira last month about how she was getting stronger while also being glad to hear that her fire-wielding friend was improving with her magic, and they'd probably need to have another conversation.

Yukino looked up from the flyer she held in her left hand to see Kira glancing down at the flyer she held in her right hand, and she slowly walked over to her friend. Since Yukino had her goal to make herself become stronger and was regularly out on jobs, Kira had to choose jobs on her own. She didn't make any choices that were very questionable, but Yukino looked quite startled as her eyes saw the job's description. She didn't think it was a good idea for Kira to take this particular job, and she decided to read the description aloud.

"The Fire Crystal that you've been wanting is now in our possession. Just try to take it from us, weakling! We'll wait for you to come on our boat in Magnolia Town that'll take you to Emblaze Island, but we've gotten much stronger to the point where we'll burn your life away! Either come to the pedestal in the volcano alone with the red spell book you stole from us, or go cry to your hotshot friends!" Yukino read aloud in a shocked manner, pretty appalled that someone would write stuff like that.

Kira replied calmly while smiling at Yukino, not really having any need to worry, "Relax, Yukino. They sound really tough, but it could just be a bluff while the reward is real. After all, they must know that merchants come when money is calling."

Yukino was not only concerned about the fact that the client was using money to lure Kira into coming alone, but she also felt the need to tell Kira that it was pretty clear that she had been spotted or watched on Emblaze Island. Even if she came there to buy cupcakes from Kasai Town, that place was perfect for people who wielded Fire Magic. That included members of the Hell's Blaze guild, and one of the female dark mages from there actually stalked Kira once before letting her take a boat back to the mainland. If she didn't show up, they'd probably hunt her down.

Kira told Yukino that she wished Minerva was around to be like the tiebreaker in this situation, but the black-haired woman was currently out on a job in the northern town of Eisetsu. It would actually last for quite a while, since she had to work as a bartender, and that only left Kira's opinions to be against Yukino's. Kira really wanted the cash from this job, and she believed that everything would okay. She was not the same mediocre girl who broke a table's leg on her first day of being in Sabertooth, and Kira believed that she could fight quite well.

As Kira could see that the red spell book gently sat on a table next to a brown cardboard box that was empty from selling items yesterday, Yukino nicely told her that it wouldn't be good to just leave Sabertooth immediately. Instead, it would probably be good to leave when it was close to sunset. This would give Kira a few hours to decide how she would deal with this situation, and having the patience to wait could really come in handy. If a mage impatiently went into a dangerous situation, they'd probably just get themselves killed.

Thinking about the circumstances for a moment did make Yukino's advice appeal to Kira, and she checked the flyer again. It never stated that she had to arrive at Magnolia's harbor by a specific hour in the day, which would make it acceptable for her to leave later instead of going right now, and Kira would probably just go tell Sting that she'd stay in Shioru Town for a few more hours. She was about to go to his office, but the sight of him and Rogue almost running past her and Yukino at high speeds was quite startling.

"Hey, Yukino! It's good to see that you're back, and I hope you're enjoying your quest to get stronger! We have to go out now, so I'll see you later!" Sting nicely told her as he smiled while running out of the guild, really in a hurry with Rogue right beside him.

Yukino told Kira in a calm tone as she was currently wearing the dress that Sting bought for her, "Well, Sting-sama is certainly eager to go out on a job with Rogue. Anyway, Kira-sama, good luck with the mission and I hope you find those Rainbow Crystals."

The red-haired girl responded kindly while smiling at Yukino, "Thanks. I hope you have fun on your journey to get stronger, Yukino. Thanks to you, Sting and I met. Maybe I'll someday help him find the next person to join Sabertooth, and they'll probably be interested in the quest for the Rainbow Crystals. I've heard they're part of an ancient challenge."

The two girls ended their conversation with a nice handshake while they promised to do well in their respective goals, and Yukino told Kira that she would someday have a rematch with the strong swordsman known as Kagura Mikazuchi. Yukino hoped that Kira would cheer for her during that match if it ever happened, but the girl with light blue hair also stated that she would have no regrets about Kira possibly fighting her in the Grand Magic Games. In fact, one of Sabertooth's newbies going up against someone like Kagura would probably end up being an exciting match.

As Yukino turned away from Kira and started walking out of the guild, Kira's attention shifted to the red spell book that was on a nearby table. She walked over to it and put it into the cardboard box, but Kira did like how the book had some interesting spells. They seemed to be quite useful for different situations while there was even a page for a special move of Fire Magic, but Kira felt like she wouldn't personally need those spells to get stronger. After handling the job on Emblaze Island, she planned on selling the book to whoever would want it. However, the unpredictability of life would probably make that plan come sooner than later.

* * *

 **Several hours later, in Magnolia Town...**

After waiting for some hours to pass and deciding to go all the way through the forest past Voltage Town, Kira arrived at the town of Magnolia. It was now four o'clock in the afternoon while the sun was setting on the town of Magnolia to make it be bathed in an orange glow that was quite beautiful, and the girl with hazel eyes hadn't seen anyone who looked like they came here to capture her. She was currently on Strawberry Street while wondering which way to go next, and Kira began to look down at the cardboard box that she held in her hands.

The hours of going through the large forest to reach Magnolia Town had made Kira start to wonder if she would be making the right choice in going to Emblaze Island by herself. The flyer's threats were obviously bait to lure her there, and the Fire Crystal was also a very huge temptation for her. She could just get one tomorrow from the hot volcano, if she survived this ordeal, and the red-haired girl would have it in her possession. Kira wanted to find all seven crystals, but just finding them wouldn't be as important as knowing how to wield them.

Some people even sold the valuable Rainbow Crystals for cash, which was an easy way for collectors to get their hands on them, but Kira wanted to do it the hard way. She had the desire to go around Fiore and collect all the crystals, but she'd have no regrets if someone else in her guild planned to find them. The other girls in Sabertooth were certainly looking for the seven crystals, some of them already having at least two, and Kira spent months overhearing juicy gossip about their locations. Rumors weren't always trustworthy, however.

There were conversations about the second crystal being somewhere in the Haina Desert of Fiore while the crystals were supposedly under the sand, but Kira would only go there to survey the area or sell items to bandits who needed tools. They would not care that she was a wizard, since bandits ironically gave merchants money to just clean out their inventory, and Kira would be glad about that nice trade. As she thought about the future and nearly ran past an apartment while having expectations for what would happen after leaving Magnolia's harbor, Kira was suddenly knocked down by someone who ran out from their apartment in a hurry.

"Oh, no! I'm so sorry! I hope that didn't hurt too much!" A blonde-haired girl told Kira in a concerned manner while watching her fall on the ground, seeing her drop the cardboard box.

Kira responded in a somewhat pained manner, rubbing her rear that became sore from the fall, "I guess there's a first time for having someone crash into you when it's least expected. At least the book didn't fly out of my hands."

She watched the blonde-haired girl walk over to the red book and pick it up, sliding the brown flyer back into the space between the pages, This mage from Magnolia also decided to be nice enough to hand the book back to Kira, and it was the least that she could do after knocking her down like that. Kira simply gave Lucy a calm look as she stood up while seeing that she wore a red shirt that ruffles at the bottom, along with black shorts, and some blue flat shoes. She seemed to be quite a fashionable girl, and Kira thought that was cool.

"Who are you, anyway? I've never seen you here before." The girl with cocoa brown eyes asked and said with a curious look on her face while stretching out her hands to give the book back.

Kira replied in a kind manner while shaking her head in response to not wanting the book, "My name is Kira Blazia, and I'm a traveling merchant who came here to sell my last product before heading back to the guild. Maybe that book can give you some tips on how to not be in a hurry for sales."

The girl replied while looking slightly irked at that last sentence, "I'm Lucy Heartfilia, and you're certainly making snarky humor out of this situation. Whatever's in this book won't be needed by me, though."

Kira informed Lucy that she was a mage who wielded Fire Magic, and the hazel-eyed merchant started to explain that the red book was a strange item. She smiled with glee while saying that the book was special because it could make a person feel stronger, and Kira also decided to inform Lucy that the book had secret spells that were only known to the dark guild called Hell's Blaze. There were similar books in Fiore that contained spells of their own elements, but Kira had yet to find any of the others. She decided to just let Lucy have that one, since her own Fire Magic didn't need improvement, and Kira didn't even care that she was a Sabertooth mage helping out someone from Fairy Tail.

Of course, every merchant did have to make things be at a price. Kira grinned in a scheming manner while saying that the book would cost 60,000 jewels, and that prompted Lucy to look somewhat shocked. She didn't have that kind of money on her right now, which was a shame, but then she opened up the book to search for the brown flyer that hadn't even been folded. She turned a few pages while ignoring the fact that some of the words were in cherry red text while other words were weirdly in pink text, and Lucy managed to find the flyer.

She looked at the reward on the flyer, surprised to see that it was 900,000 jewels, and Lucy glanced up at the red-haired merchant to see her giggling in a silly manner. Lucy could just do the job now and pay for the book later, which would be an unusual agreement between a mage and a merchant, and Kira soon became surprised for a moment at how it seemed like this girl with long blonde hair would handle her issue. Kira didn't expect this type of deal to result from a simple collision with someone, but she would allow it.

Lucy let her eyes scroll down the job's description, seeing how it was filled with threats that were directed at Kira, and this was more like a ransom note than a typical job. Kira began to giggle nervously while telling Lucy that she killed a criminal in the Hell's Blaze guild, which was the same place she stole the book from, and the rest of the people in the guild were possibly wanting revenge for how she killed Hiroko Katsura. That was a logical reason for why they sent the ransom note to Sabertooth, and that was quite bold.

"Kira, be safe on the way back to your guild and don't worry about me. I think that this ransom mission is something I can handle, and it's a trap that I won't let you walk into. This thing called the Fire Crystal may not even be real, so don't take their bait." Lucy explained to her in a stern tone while hoping that the merchant would run away, not wanting her to get hurt.

Kira retorted in a kind manner as she thought about the blue Lacrima Communications Crystal in the right pocket of her brown shorts, "My guild master and his best friend informed me earlier about how they saw it on the pedestal in Emblaze Island's volcano, though. I know that the Fire Crystal is a red item in the shape of a rhombus, and it matches up with how my guild master described it to look."

"Where is Emblaze Island, Kira? Should I take a boat to get there?" Lucy calmly asked her new friend, as she never saw it on any maps in Fairy Tail.

Kira explained to her while smiling, happy that Lucy would take her place in this matter, "Yes, take a boat to Emblaze Island. It's somewhat far from here, but you'll like it. Kasai Town is a tourist destination where a fiery volcano resides. In fact, users of Fire Magic should train there more often. Anyway, I'm gonna go find more jobs or more items to make some sales! I'll be back later to see your profits, and remember to always look both ways when you're running!"

As Kira began to run up the street for the purpose of going back through the woods and forest to reach Sabertooth, she smiled at how Lucy seemed like someone who would have a burning ambition to become stronger. She wondered if Lucy would end up wielding the spells in that book to a great degree, and Kira also wondered how the mages in Hell's Blaze would react to the sight of Lucy with the book. Kira thought about how Sting was so happy that Yukino helped him find a new person to join the guild, but Kira hoped that Lucy would run into Sting and explain everything to him. Kira thought that Lucy was a nice new friend that could possibly join Sabertooth at some point, and many exciting adventures would result from their worlds colliding today.

* * *

 **How was this last chapter? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. The last part is from "The Feeling of Rejection", but the difference? It's seen from Kira's perspective, which makes things more interesting. You should totally check out that story, if you liked this one. Thanks for reading! :)**


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